Saturday, February 18, 2006

WAR takes protests to the doorsteps of HLS financial supporters

After a fun and informative WAR special event featuring inspiring campaign videos and special guest speaker Dr. Jerry Vlasak, the group set off on some unscheduled demonstrations at the homes of HLS financial supporters. Dozens of activists traveled to the nearby Greenwich Village home of Brian Badertscher. Brian is an executive with Bank of America, parent company of Columbia Management, which continues to hold close to 300,000 shares of LSRI stock.

Our next destination proved to be unique and informative. Despite the freezing cold temperatures about 20 activists visited the home of Robert Schaffer of the Vertical Group, one of LSRI's last remaining market makers. We caught Robert on his way out the door to a dinner appointment. Robert began by telling us the he was happy to have bumped into us because he was aware of our previous visits (most likely from neighbors who indicated they were sympathetic to our cause).

Robert told us that he has 5 dogs and that he loves animals. He also said that he knows about LSRI (HLS) and that he agrees with us about the cruelty there. He made sure to point out that he was wearing a faux fur coat (in retrospect, we wonder if it was really faux fur?) as we all stood shivering in the frigid 10 degree cold. Then he told us that his company, Vertical Group, absolutely does not make a market for LSRI. Right there was when his credibility was totally shot. We KNOW for certain that Vertical is making a market for LSRI.

Over the course of the next 30 minutes, Robert gave us all kinds of information about the way the stock market works, the way the pinks sheets work and he also suggested strategies and tactics that would be more effective in driving LSRI stock down. Halfway into the conversation, Schaffer slipped and admitted that his company had been selling LSRI stock short. This critical slip proves he was lying when he said that Vertical was not making a market for LSRI. Come to think of it, we have been to his first floor apartment on multiple occasions and we have never heard a single bark from one of his “phantom dogs”.

Before leaving it was agreed that Schaffer would talk to his partners at Vertical about what he had heard and learned. We left him a DVD of “The Truth” and asked him to screen it for his partners. We doubt that he made good on his promise, as we see that Vertical is still one of the leading market makers for LSRI. He must not “love animals” as much as he tried to convince us he did. Protests at this location will continue.