Lively Case Discussion #507 8/6 - 8/7/2006

[Tylergal]

My parents used to have a lot of houses that they used to rent and my Mother was kinda the business person when a renter would come by about a house.. While my Mother talked to the person my Father would look inside their car to see if they kept it clean, well if it was clean then my Dad would give the OK to rent to these people..  They figured if they didn't keep their car clean, they wouldn't take care of their renter property..  I understand about kids but there is different clutter...

Terry, I feel the same way about cars, if your car is cluttered and messy, so is your house.  Of course, I do exempt mothers who are running a home from a car who transports kids back and forth to school, to play, etc.  I always had lots of odd shoes or socks, empty potato chip bags, etc., in my car either from one of my own or one who was riding to football, baseball, swim meet, library, or wherever.

[terryd270]

Ono,

True story, a friend bought a new boat and we all were excited because we could go diving off of it.. Well he didn't like us getting water in his boat so after we would come out of the ocean, he made us used the towel to dry up the water we dropped in the boat.. It was kinda funny, we all just looked at each other and wonder if he really knew he had a boat..

Oh, Lord...hahahaha ~  I wonder if he is still that way now?

Yes and maybe a little worsed..  This was only a few years ago.. Very hyper...  I try to stay away from him as much as possible..

[BTgirl]

Do we know who is going to be on Dana's show?

[Ono]

Well, for one thing, right off the bat, Deepak circling the block even once was just totally weird, just for starters....and anybody can quickly fasten a seatbelt in the blink of an eye....seatbelt/police excuse pretty lame.  Maybe he was trying to make up his own mind as to whether or not he wanted to be implicated in Joran's kidnapping fiasco that night and was thinking about bailing out, so he runs around the block several times deciding?? Maybe they were all arguing in Dutch or the other language?

[terryd270]

BTGirl,

I know we are supposed to have something on Fox Line Up tonight..

[Ono]

Ono,

True story, a friend bought a new boat and we all were excited because we could go diving off of it.. Well he didn't like us getting water in his boat so after we would come out of the ocean, he made us used the towel to dry up the water we dropped in the boat.. It was kinda funny, we all just looked at each other and wonder if he really knew he had a boat..

Oh, Lord...hahahaha ~  I wonder if he is still that way now?

Yes and maybe a little worsed..  This was only a few years ago.. Very hyper...  I try to stay away from him as much as possible..

Oh. no...he hasn't chilled out ?? He IS a case...no fun.

[BTgirl]

BTGirl,

I know we are supposed to have something on Fox Line Up tonight..

Thanks, Terry.

[Tylergal]

Well, for one thing, right off the bat, Deepak circling the block even once was just totally weird, just for starters....and anybody can quickly fasten a seatbelt in the blink of an eye....seatbelt/police excuse pretty lame.  Maybe he was trying to make up his own mind as to whether or not he wanted to be implicated in Joran's kidnapping fiasco that night and was thinking about bailing out, so he runs around the block several times deciding?? Maybe they were all arguing in Dutch or the other language?

Joran tells they were speaking in Dutch or Papiamento, but I believe Dutch, and that Natalee could not understand them.  I think had it been Papiamento with her understanding of Spanish, she would have been able to understand a good bit of that, so I prefer to think it was Dutch.

That first of all was very rude, criminal implications aside.  Just speaks to the lack of manners by this big roughian who looks like Frankenstein.

[Easywriter]

Do we know who is going to be on Dana's show?

I thought I read that he was going to have someone from someone's blog in addition to the George Reeves story, but I can't find that again.

Right now he is running a re-play of the bank shootout from last week.

[Ono]

Well, for one thing, right off the bat, Deepak circling the block even once was just totally weird, just for starters....and anybody can quickly fasten a seatbelt in the blink of an eye....seatbelt/police excuse pretty lame.  Maybe he was trying to make up his own mind as to whether or not he wanted to be implicated in Joran's kidnapping fiasco that night and was thinking about bailing out, so he runs around the block several times deciding?? Maybe they were all arguing in Dutch or the other language?

Joran tells they were speaking in Dutch or Papiamento, but I believe Dutch, and that Natalee could not understand them.  I think had it been Papiamento with her understanding of Spanish, she would have been able to understand a good bit of that, so I prefer to think it was Dutch.

That first of all was very rude, criminal implications aside.  Just speaks to the lack of manners by this big roughian who looks like Frankenstein.

Yes, the similiarity between Spanish and Papiamento/Portugese is truly easy to detect and translate.  I agree...they used Dutch for the nitty gritty stuff...Wonder if they first tried the Papiamento and she caught on ??  Very RUDE to converse in another language in front of people who speak English...I hate that.

[klaasend]

Do we know who is going to be on Dana's show?

I thought I read that he was going to have someone from someone's blog in addition to the George Reeves story, but I can't find that again.

Right now he is running a re-play of the bank shootout from last week.

As far as I know only the George Reeves story.  The blog thing you read was incorrect.

[Tylergal]

Ono, I am still thinking about the "white rental car" that was following them, as being the reason they "kept driving around."  Did the white rental car indicate some of their friends from another place, perhaps Columbia or Venezuela was following them and partaking in this, as it would be necessary for someone from those parts to "rent a car," as they could not drive it through the Caribbean.  How could you tell from looking in your rearview mirror that a car is rented.  I believe that was changed back in the 1990s when ne'er do wells were able to detect tourists by the "rental sticker" and all car companies went to a smaller way of recognition.  As we rent Enterprise cars when we travel, I can say the sticker is quite small, placed on the rear bumper with a very small "e" on it, so that it can be recognized by perhaps someone traveling behind it up very, very close but not from a distance.

[Jacqueline]

Evening Monkeys....

Is Beth on the LINE UP tonight?

Special shout out to BT...

How you doing girl?

[terryd270]

I just have to tell you about this post from another site from MR..

"Medley can only share this -- Deepak is back at the Cyberzone and seems to be doing well - he was very nice to me. I also met his mom who is working for a secruity firm - she was very nice also. I think they are doing better now - but I also hear it was very rough for them. "

Ok this lady was fired for padding the checks from customers and now they have her working at a security firm..  ONLY IN ARUBA does that make sense..

[terryd270]

Don't you have to be bonded to even be a rental cop??? The more I learn about that island, the more I just have to shake my head and think that there are a lot of lucky Americans that have escaped and hopefully there will be less Americans that go to that corrupt little island..

[BTgirl]

Evening Monkeys....

Is Beth on the LINE UP tonight?

Special shout out to BT...

How you doing girl?

Hi Jacqueline. I'm doing good, thanks, except for working to hard.

How about yourself?

[Jacqueline]

Evening Monkeys....

Is Beth on the LINE UP tonight?

Special shout out to BT...

How you doing girl?

Hi Jacqueline. I'm doing good, thanks, except for working to hard.

How about yourself?

Great, thanks......

[klaasend]

Ono, I am still thinking about the "white rental car" that was following them, as being the reason they "kept driving around."  Did the white rental car indicate some of their friends from another place, perhaps Columbia or Venezuela was following them and partaking in this, as it would be necessary for someone from those parts to "rent a car," as they could not drive it through the Caribbean.  How could you tell from looking in your rearview mirror that a car is rented.  I believe that was changed back in the 1990s when ne'er do wells were able to detect tourists by the "rental sticker" and all car companies went to a smaller way of recognition.  As we rent Enterprise cars when we travel, I can say the sticker is quite small, placed on the rear bumper with a very small "e" on it, so that it can be recognized by perhaps someone traveling behind it up very, very close but not from a distance.

[terryd270]

You have three main suspects still telling different stories and yet they are totally innocent.. ONLY IN ARUBA.. I walked, Deepak picked me up, Satish Picked me up, Paulus picked me up..  So all the above are true in Aruba...

[the big hammer]

CyberZone Seller To Ramirez

Ono writes: "Seems to me she just managed it and didn't Hammer discover or comment on the fact that the owner before Ramierz was an American ???"

1.  Seller to Ramirez was Lloyd Selwyn Hickinson.  At time of sale, Hickinson lived in Seroe Blanco neighborhood on Aruba.  There was speculation on thread when first ID's last September, that Hickinson was British, based on his name and the way it sounded, though this was never confirmed.

2.  The sale was registered w/ Aruba Chamber of Commerce on August 29, 2005.  Based on date and previous listing in C of C registry, it is clear that Hickinson was owner of Cyberzone throughout 2005 (until sale) and before.  Therefore, he remains an extremely important person to talk to, as he would have to know what was being transmitted from the servers that are on premisis and/or accessed.

3.  Cyberzone is and was a Digicel WIFI hotspot.

4.  Transaction Value: Without benefit of balance sheet and therefore no visibility re: debt and book value, I had long ago attempted to ascertain a range of sale price.  This was based on detailed analytics attached to CyberZone business which included (primarily) providing Web access to tourists, developing marketing and other communications for local buisness, providing print and re-pro services, providing web-design, and finally providing confectionary.  Based on seats and desktops available and determining  from business hours as posted, and using access $rates posted, and factoring available staff as manpower to handle other business needs.  I had estimate Cyberzone would turn approx $400K per annum.  Based on this, and not necessarily an ideal way to estimate, we can use revenue multiple as sale range factor.  I used 0.5 to 0.6, as merely a retail store front w/ few hard assets (machines are likely leased) and zero intellectual property.  Sale was estimated at $250k before deducting for debt and other encumberances.  (ALL of the above presumes there was no hidden asset problem, or liability, attached to transfer and is based on a straight revenue assumption -- therefore, there could of course be numerous items which could significantly reduce (debt, eg) or increase (long term contracts w/ big clients, eg) sale value and price.)

5.  Bondia posted after my posts re: above and indicated transaction was a "cashless sale."  I posed then it was an "asset swap out" which drew no reply.

6.  Standard due diligence process on sale of most smaller businesses reuires lead time to review documents and track business results and execution to ensure nothing is hidden that would represent a great unknown liability to a legit buyer.  Typical process is 75-90 days (about the same time to close on residential home purchase).  Working backward from sale register date at Aruba C of C of 8/29/05 and using 90 day lead time, you arrive at 5/29/05.

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