Corrections or additions?
This articles by Barbara Fox were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on
September 15, 1999. All rights reserved.
Legal Troubles: Martin Anderson
Three Princeton area companies find themselves in
trouble with the law. In the most serious trouble is Martin Armstrong,
the Carnegie Center-based economic forecaster who brought in ex-prime
minister Margaret Thatcher to keynote a 1996 conference. On Monday,
September 13, he was charged with federal securities fraud for
covering up trading losses of as much as $950 million in Japanese
investments.
Meanwhile former students of Cittone Institute are suing because the
school suddenly closed its Canal Pointe campus and did not fully
refund tuition. And S.T. Monforte Robotics, with stores on Routes 206
and 33, is one of five New Jersey companies accused of selling
counterfeit Microsoft software.
Armstrong, 49, was released on $5 million bail; if convicted, he could
serve up to 10 years in prison and be fined twice the value of the
alleged losses. His lawyer, Mark Durand of the Philadelphia-based
Durand and Durand, says he will fight the charge.
Armstrong directs Princeton Economics International at 214 Carnegie
Center, listed as a financial advisory service. Princeton Economics
Institute, a sister firm, distributes a newsletter for the futures
market, “The Armstrong Report,” among other publications.
Armstrong is also involved with the Foundation for the Study of
Cycles,
founded in 1940 with the mission of forecasting economic catastrophe.
Armstrong is accused of using “offshore entities to sell $3
billion
in securities to Japanese investors, of which a large portion were
sold even while he concealed the fact that he had suffered hundreds
of millions of dollars in trading losses.”
This investigation began last May when Japanese authorities audited
the books of Armstrong’s Japanese company, Cresvale. Ten years ago,
when Armstrong was fined $12,000 by the Commodity Futures Training
Commission for misrepresenting hypothetical performance results and
omitting required disclaimers, he spent $1 million and 10 years to
take it to the United States Supreme Court, and lost.
The suit against Cittone Institute and its parent, Lincoln Technical
Institute, was filed in Mercer County Court by 42 of the 200 students
enrolled when the Canal Pointe location suddenly closed in August
1998. Students were told to travel to Edison or Mount Laurel and were
reimbursed for the portion of the courses they had not completed.
The students seek damages for tuition costs plus court expenses.
Microsoft has recently begun to publicize its piracy hotline
(800-785-3448),
says a customer service representative on that line. To follow up
on complaints — which are sometimes made by competitors —
Microsoft sends two investigators to make purchases to confirm that
Windows purchasers receive a manual, a certificate of authenticity,
and registration card.
Responding to the Microsoft suit, Mathew Monforte, the owner of S.T.M.
Robotics, claims that his salesperson may simply have picked up a
wrong copy of the software, one that was packaged to be installed
on a computer. “It costs the same amount. One has letters on the
front and one doesn’t.” Another possibility, he says, is that
he received “a couple of bad copies of software” from a
supplier.
“We are not an authorized detection center. We’re a middle
man,”
says Monforte. “I buy thousands of parts from hundreds of dealers.
We made no profits last year; the world’s biggest company is bouncing
on the smallest companies.”
— Barbara Fox
Top Of PageOn the Move: New in Town
Enviro-Sciences Inc., 400 Wall Street, Princeton08540-1517. Stephen Fleischacker, vice president. 609-688-9792; fax,609-688-1093.This environmental engineering firm expanded in July by moving fromYardley and opening a 4,500-foot, 14-person office in Research Park.For Fortune 100 clients it does environmental engineering, management,and litigation support in the areas of soil, water, and air pollution.Based in Mt. Arlington, New Jersey, the firm has 12 offices, moston the East Coast.Top Of PageExpansionsClive Samuels & Associates Inc., 105 College RoadEast, Princeton 08540. Clive Samuels, president. 609-520-1600; fax,609-520-0974.The 80-person engineering firm moved from 10,000 square feet at 2Research Way to 18,000 feet at 105 College Road. Its consultants domechanical and electrical engineering and automatic controls andrefrigerationdesigns for commercial, industrial, and retail facilities.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesPickQuick Papers, 2495 Route 1 and Texas Avenue,Lawrence Shopping Center, Lawrenceville 08648. Ellen Scanella, trademanager. 609-883-5488; fax, 609-883-3642.The paper superstore has moved from its Darrah Lane location adjacentto Triangle — Your Creative Center to Lawrence Shopping Center.It features products for desktop publishing, copiers, and laser andink jet printers.Princetonian Graphics Inc., 45 Stouts Lane, Suites4 and 5, Monmouth Junction 08852. Ven Iyer, president. 732-329-8282.Princetonian Graphics has moved north on Route 1, from PrincetonService Center to Stouts Lane. Although it has a new phone and fax,the former numbers still work. A printer, it offers in-house graphicsdesign, typesetting, diecutting, thermography, and single-color tofull-color print.Top Of PageDeathsAnthony D. Nini, 72, on September 10. He was the ownerof Nini Chrysler Plymouth and of Narrowbrook Farm, a horse breedingfarm in Robbinsville.Richard Fishbein, 53, research director at AmericanCyanamid on Route 1, on September 11. A memorial service will beFriday, September 17, at 3 p.m. at the Princeton University Chapel.Frederick M. Porter Jr., 73, former chief of police andtownship committeeman in Princeton Township, on September 11. Thefuneral will be Saturday, September 18, at 1 p.m. at WitherspoonStreet Presbyterian Church.Grace M. Ramsland, 70, died September 12. She retiredin 1993 from Applied Data Research, where she had been an executivesecretary.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
