tagged w/ Isle of Man
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Unfortunately, this is a civil action(http://voices.washingtonpost.com/market-cop/2010/07/politically-connected_wyly_bro.html?hpid=topnews) and the most we can hope for are some SEC fines (which are ludicrously low). Too bad this isn't a criminal case, but at least it's some karmic return for the "Wyly Coyotes," who funded the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry. (They also funded George W. Bush's attacks on John McCain in the 2000 Republican primaries.)
Oh, and by the way: The Manhattan district attorney's office referred this case to the SEC in 2005. Wonder what took them so long?
Samuel Wyly and Charles Wyly -- billionaire brothers in Texas who have spent millions funding political campaigns -- committed violations of federal securities laws and fraud by using offshore accounts to secretly trade the shares of public companies whose boards they sat on, reaping more than $550 million in profit, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint filed Thursday.
The politically-active Wylys, who have been generous donors to Republican causes over the years, have faced questions in recent years -- including a Senate probe -- about whether they ran an extensive network of tax shelters.
"The cloak of secrecy has been lifted from the complex web of foreign structures used by the Wylys to evade the securities laws," said SEC deputy director of enforcement Lorin L. Reisner. "They used these structures to conceal hundreds of millions of dollars of gains in violation of the disclosure requirements for corporate insiders."
The SEC alleges that the brothers created an elaborate network of accounts and companies in the Isle of Man and the Cayman Islands that they used to trade more than $750 million in stock in four public companies they served as board members. The SEC charges that they also committed an insider trading violation concerning one of the companies, earning almost $32 million.
The Wyly's attorney and stockbroker were also charged.
They also own Michaels, the national arts and crafts chain. So we can blame them for scrapbooking, too!Unfortunately, this is a civil... more
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This is the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc, a race bike built by a tiny Oregonian company focused on pushing the limits of electric performance to the absolute max. It packs 10 times the battery capacity of a Toyota Prius and 2.5 times the torque of a Ducati 1198 into a package that looks like something out of a 24th-century Thunderdome.
Tomorrow it will race in the Isle of Man TT, the toughest motorcycle race in the world. The technology at work is so advanced, so unprecedented, that we may be looking not just at the future of motorcycles, but of all electric vehicles.
The reason the all-electric race bike is here, 4,600 miles from its home in Portland, Oregon, is to prove itself. Ever since 1907, the Isle of Man TT has been the race for bike manufacturers and riders to show their mettle to the public. The thinking goes that if you can lap its 37.7 miles of tiny, twisty back roads with an average speed in excess of 100 MPH, you or your bike become indisputably proven. Well over 200 riders and a handful of spectator’s have been killed trying to do just that.
But as recently as two days ago, the future of motorcycles was missing its body panels (stuck in customs). Before this week, the finished bike has never even seen the light of day. But even in its unproven, incomplete state, it's been putting in laps that have the competition quaking in their leather.
The customs snafu (and the mad dash to even finish the bike in time for the race) is not the first time Michael Czysz, MotoCzysz’s founder, CEO and the driving force behind the E1pc, had suffered a set back on this tiny rock in the middle of the Irish Sea. Last year, the Isle of Man TT hosted the first ever all-electric motorcycle road race, and MotoCzysz was there with the E1pc's predecessor. But while the machines that entered were technically impressive, their performance wasn’t. The race-winning team only averaged 87 MPH, well short of the 100 MPH watershed that defines a serious lap and way behind the 131.5 MPH lap record set by the fastest gas-powered superbikes. MotoCzysz didn’t even complete a full lap, suffering an electric spike from their experimental kinetic energy recovery system that fried the bike’s electronic control unit (ECU).
That was a major blow for Czysz (pronounced "sizz"). Five months of whirlwind effort from the former motorcycle racer and architect and his small team in Portland saw them abruptly transition away from developing a 200 HP, gasoline-powered MotoGP bike to produce an electric bike that blew the zero emissions competition away standing still. The E1pc looks like an X-Wing crossed with an iPod to the other electric racer’s cobbled-together adaptations of existing internal combustion engine bikes.
We overreached and it bit us in the ass,” says Czysz of last year’s race. “We’re trying to do too much with too little, we’re effectively building a Formula One level machine with one engineer, two machinists, one CAD guy, me and a body dude.”
But the E1pc was out in front when it broke down. Way out front.This is the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc, a race bike built by a tiny Oregonian company focused... more
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diode
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1 year ago
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Says country is a perfect place to test out a blanket file-sharing tax scheme.
Music fans and record labels have long fought over the rights and wrongs of file-sharing, but now an island tax haven in the Irish Sea says it has come up with a way to keep the peace.
The Isle of Man's e-business adviser Ron Berry said Tuesday that the self-governing territory between England and Ireland is considering charging its residents, who all have broadband connections, about a euro (dollar) a month to legalize file-sharing for personal use. Although industry groups expressed skepticism, Berry said the plan was a way of replacing piracy with principle.
"Anybody can go on to the Internet and access anything," he said. "What we're trying to do is legalize it and monetize it. Why would you bother to pirate anything if you could do it with the blessing of the rights holders?"
Tim Craine, the Isle of Man's e-commerce minister, says the plan would be voluntary.
"There is an opt-out for people who don't want a compulsory charge. We would envisage an opt-out - there would be a public reaction against it," he explained. "But you have to compete with free."
"You have to create an entry level that tempts people off illegal downloads or this just isn't going to work. We've got to be aware of how we sell this, and what the public reaction is going to be. We've got to convince the public this is a positive move."
But securing the blessing of those rights-holders — major record labels, many of whom are still fighting file-sharers in court — could be difficult.
"A blanket file-sharing deal akin to a broadband tax imposed by government, as has been suggested, is not something we'd welcome — and is some way wide of the mark," the BPI — Britain's main record industry lobbying group — said in a statement Tuesday.
Berry argued that the Isle of Man, with a population of 78,000, was the ideal place for an experiment that could calm some of the industry's doubts.
The 221 square mile (572 square kilometer) territory is dependent on the British crown but is not technically part of the United Kingdom and has its own parliament. Its rock-bottom taxes have turned it into an important financial center, but the island also is trying to market itself as an e-commerce hub.
As to how the money would be distributed to rights-holders, Berry said that has yet to be negotiated with the record industry. But the experiment could go ahead even without a negotiated deal, Berry said, explaining that the money could be held in escrow.
The IFPI, which represents the record industry worldwide, said that in principle it supported deals to provide unlimited music through Internet service or cell phone providers.
The IFPI said that while "an experiment in a small territory such as the Isle of Man might be quite interesting from an academic point of view," it did not believe the model could be applied elsewhere.Says country is a perfect place to test out a blanket file-sharing tax scheme.... more
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The Isle of Man's Manx government may be the first to implement a scheme in which a top-up on all broadband charges acts as a blanket music consumption license, allowing unlimited, legal, P2P downloads for the entire population.
"At the end of the day, we are not going to stop piracy, so let's embrace it," says the Manx Inward Investment Minister, Ron Berry.
A blanket licence on P2P downloads? Your thoughts?The Isle of Man's Manx government may be the first to implement a scheme in which... more
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It is time once again for riders to flock to a small island in the middle of the Irish Sea for the most notorious races of the year - the Isle of Man TT. Leading the list of contenders in '08, and every TT in recent memory, is John McGuinness, who holds the standing TT lap record on the 37.73-mile course. McGuinness will attempt to be the first rider in TT history to crack the 131-mph lap barrier.It is time once again for riders to flock to a small island in the middle of the Irish... more
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