Vindication Posts

Mike Lathigee, has spent the last ten years rebuilding his reputation after the collapse of his last company. Here are some words from several of the club members who have interacted with Mike:

Mike Lathigee has gone to extraordinary lengths in conveying his experiences from the past.

Including the good & the bad.

We all stumble and fall.

It is those who continue, prevail and then succeed that seem to draw the ire of those who are unwilling or unable to do the same.

There is a saying
Those who can – do
Those who cannot – teach
But it also seems that those who cannot – do or teach – persecute!

Mike has focused his fierce criticism on the ‘traditional’ investment models – & included the regulatory bodies, and their lawyers, within this focus.

10 years ago, after the meltdown of ’08/’09 these lawyers found a weakness & they pounced. 

They have been relentless in their scrutiny in the years since, in the attempt to add fodder to their agenda – but to no avail.

Mike will not back down and neither will they desist in perusing an agenda the source of which he has discussed ad nauseam – and really is quite dated.

The whole issue is covered in the document ‘My name is Mike Lathigee’ for those who care to read it.

He has relationships with a group of accredited / sophisticated investors which (in most cases) spanning many, many years.

Highly educated with various skill sets they interact closely with Mike on current deals and deals they have cashed out on.

There can be fewer relationships as volatile – as they kind they have with Mike – and yet they will enthusiastically endorse this man.

We leave it to the reader to decide their own mind, however; state for the record that Mike has always worked to the best results for his investors and will continue to do so regardless of the consequences.

Appellant’s Reply Brief – Click to read

There are many weaknesses the BCSC case and please see the attached court fling that points to all the shortcomings.  In addition, although many times the BCSC has led reporters to write that somehow Lathigee had personal financial gain, in the most recent court brief the BCSC’s own lawyer, Johnson, stated that “Lathigee has had no personal financial gain”.   In fact Lathigee lost more than any other investor after Toronto Dominion Bank called his line of credit although all payments were current and simultaneously cancelled all financing for building lots that were sold to builders.  Please see youtube video “Lathigee writes complaint letter to TD Bank” with over 5000 views.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6B2jc7UHXXE%3Fstart%3D2%26feature%3Doembed

Please watch the above video and below is a more detailed about what transpired.

Mike Lathigee is the Chairman and Founder of the Investment Club of America.  

He remains fully transparent regarding his track record of successes and challenges from the past.   In fact, in a recent interview with the world famous Economist Mark Skousen, Mr Skousen says ‘Mike always guides people to “Google Me” before they do business with him.’ 
LINK TO FREEDOMFEST VIDEO

Mike has lead many deals successfully over the last decade and in this video you will learn more about this track record as well as the Investment Club of America. 

Over the past 8 years, Mike Lathigee has overseen several projects – the outcome of which has been that investors have cashed in and cashed out with strong gains.  

At the same time he has also received unfavorable press as a result of the British Columbia Security Commission (BCSC) civil adjudication against him (brought subsequent to the impact that the ‘meltdown’ of 2008/2009 had on his businesses) where it was ruled that he did not have enough disclosure in two of 21 prospectuses filed at the time.   

Although the BCSC fully admitted he had no personal financial gain and, in fact, lost more money than any other investor he was still fined $21.7 million.    The judgment against him has now been domiciled in Nevada and he has appealed the decision.   Please click here to read the “attached brief” in addition to this video which explains many of the weaknesses in the BCSC case.   In addition, in this brief, the BCSC own expert lawyer admits that Lathigee had no personal financial gain. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20220123062924if_/https://player.vimeo.com/video/360849628?dnt=1&app_id=122963

Mike Lathigee has a strong following of club members across America.    Recently the British Columbia Securities Commission domiciled a judgment against Mr Lathigee for $16 million.    In this video Mr Lathigee fully discloses what happened in Canada and updates members  on what is happening in the case.  In addition, you will learn all the details of Mr Lathigee projects in Nevada and the track record to date.

Attorney_Misconduct_Complaint Sean BarryDownload

Sean Barry is a lawyer from California who is a 2.5% minority shareholder in a fitness business.   I arranged for investors to purchase ownership of a significant larger interests in the business.  He apparently has a personal vendetta against me and the management group that took over several years ago.  

There is a litigation matter pending wherein some other minority owners are trying to oust the management group and nullify the ownership interests of the investors I arranged.   While Sean Barry is not a named plaintiff in that action, he is aligned with those plaintiffs.

Very clearly this shows an attorney pushing all ethics boundaries and I am happy to publicly expose his actions for all to see! Please read and share as you see fit. 

At the Econosummit prior to introducing a speaker, Mike did a passionate presentation of what it will take to “Make America Great Again” but not in the Trump Context.   This is a “must watch” for all club members who have concerns about many aspects of our Federal Government.   These are subjects that Mike has been talking about for years and it is not a message the Government likes being conveyed. The Framers and ForeFathers of America put safeguards in place that were not adhered too and unfortunately we have a Federal Government that is completely out of control.    With surveillance laws now in place from 911 that were only supposed to be temporary America’s are now part of a State where our Privacy and Personal Liberty are compromised as America continues down the path of further control over all aspects of America’s lives.

The 4 biggest airlines, Delta, American, Southwest and United collectively spent $39 billion on share buybacks
to enrich their executive team – to date. These executives took massive bonuses even if their particular stock was underperforming in the industry.

Now these executives have squandered over 97% of all the monies they had on share buybacks and they want the taxpayer to bail them out. 
This is exactly why I am against share buybacks.

I have expounded at length on why we had to do away with share buy backs at countless meetings – this shows exactly why.
This is $39 billion that could have been used to save these companies from another bailout. Instead it was used for no reasonable economic purpose. The chief motivation was to ensure executive bonuses and keep shareholders happy.
In my opinion, the executives of these companies should sell the assets they now personally hold – as a result of the options they cashed in on – from share buybacks & then (and only then) should the American taxpayer consider a bailout. 

These companies had a chance to build up cash reserves on behalf of the companies they are supposed to be responsible for  – instead they blew it on share buybacks.  Airline executives are well aware that airlines are one of the hardest hit industries in a Recession but executives were overcome by greed instead of business prudence. 
(This is why share buy backs are much more restricted in other countries).
 
Perhaps we taxpayers, now on the hook for this bailout, should take over the 4 airlines and fire the management teams
of these companies.  

I wrote an opinion letter to our State Senators today and encourage you to do the same. Nationally, we now have $23 trillion in debt and after this crisis I am sure we will get to $26 trillion.   If we see high interest rates – there will be no money to pay for any government services except the debt.  
Tell the airline executives they must set personal examples before we as taxpayers bail them out. Please forward this email to as many outraged taxpayers are possible.

Members,
My biggest worry right now is that the corona virus is possibly mutating into a stronger virus that can also have dire consequence for younger healthier people and not simply the older people with pre-existing conditions. 
We are seeing reports coming out of France and Italy reflecting that some younger people are getting seriously ill and that was rarely the case in China where the virus originated
a few months ago.   

In no way am I stating that the disease is mutating but for now – it has to be the highest concern.  

Finally, since Friday I have heard money manager after money manager stating the reasons they are buying heavily in the stock market. 
If you followed their advice you would be getting killed and your wealth eroding away. 
There is a reason why 96.7% of money managers underperform the market index! 
I remain convinced of what I have said many times publicly,
“Money managers are the most overpaid, undertalented, class of workers in the marketplace”.  

Be careful!

I am closely following a new story that US Members of Congress were given advanced notice of the economic impact of the coronavirus and dumped their stock holding before American Citizens were notified on equal grounds.   So you are aware “insider buying” is not illegal with Members of Congress.  I will keep you updated as I find out more – as this story just came out minutes ago.

In follow up to my last opinion letter – I must update members regarding another bailout request from Boeing.   Again, all taxpayers should be outraged as the executives of Boeing did massive share buy backs and the compensation packages for Board members and high level executives was in the tens of millions.
After this poor use of money (on share buy backs) – where money was diverted away from expansion, equipment replacement, new products, service development and cash reserves (in the event of something like what is occurring currently) – the executive team is now requesting at least a $60 billion in bailout.
Why should these executives keep large homes, fancy cars, and in some cases private jets and then ask the taxpayer to bail them out? Is it so they can continue to run the company – despite their poor decisions?
Small business owners pour all their personal capital into their companies and if the company is successful they become wealthy and if it is not they become poor.  With the current system these executives can poorly manage a company and grow enormously wealthy even if the company they manage does not perform well.

Please send a comment to our State Senators and tell them – ‘No bailout for Boeing’ unless the management team is fired, the management team returns all personal gains from their share buybacks and the tax payer takes ownership of Boeing. 

PLEASE POST THIS NOTICE ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA IF YOU AGREE.

Boeing’s spent $43.44 billion over 10 years on share buy backs. It has  received government assistance in the past during tough times so these billions should have been placed as reserve funds.
WE AS TAXPAYERS MUST BE OUTRAGED!
Boeing is well aware that it needed to keep cash on hand. Last week it called  in all its credit lines from banks but most Americans are not aware that the day after Boeing did this – many banks cancelled credit lines or denied access of everyday American businesses to their credit lines.  The reason is banks did not want the exposure of more companies doing what Boeing had just done.  So this was another situation where Boeing created damage, albeit unintentionally in this case – but profound nonetheless.
Bailout money must go to small businesses where the entrepreneurs bet everything on the company’s success.

Here is the update on airlines share buy backs after my last opinion letter.  
Southwest, Alaska, Delta, United, American, JetBlue have bought back 49.175 billion in stock.  
They are asking the tax payer to bail them out now for
$50 billion.    
The airline industry is well aware of the fact that – in Recessions the airline industry must have a “reserve fund”; however, any such reserve fund was blown on share buy backs with the primary goal of compensating executives.    If you look up the executive’s names and cross-reference their compensation packages some of them are paid thousands of dollars an hour
every day of the week.    
How can it be right that the executives of these large companies hold massive mansions with private jets, summer vacation homes and then receive bailouts with the likeliness that they will do the same thing all over again if given the opportunity.   
“Yes”, to small business bailouts but  “No” to uncontrollable destructive greed that we as taxpayers must pay for.

Finally on a local level Jim Murren is the CEO of MGM Resorts in Vegas.
He joined the company as its CEO in 2015 and has decided to step down as its CEO during the coronavirus crisis and is receiving a compensation exit package of $32 million.
This is while MGM employees are being laid off in large numbers. Is it just me or is there something wrong with what is happening?
I understand what capitalism is but – what is this?

AGAIN, IF YOU AGREE WITH THIS NARRATIVE –
PLEASE SHARE IT WITH OTHERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

One of our club members, Brett Gordon, has written an essay about the coronavirus to share with members.  He did this on his own and he provides a unique prospective that is thoughtful and not being discussed.    We may vary in our opinion with what Brett writes however, it is important that we consider all angles as we come to grips with the changing reality of what is going on.

I want to personally thanks Brett for doing this as he did it solely to assist members during these harsh times.  The club is “my tribe” and members like Brett care about “the tribe”.

Pandemic of Virus or Pandemic of Fear

Why are we reacting like the sky is falling?  Why are governments reacting so violently to this Coronavirus?  Is this pandemic fact based or fear based?  Is it hype or reality?  It’s all a matter of perspective.

Early on in the history of this Coronavirus (COVID-19) (SARS-CoV-2) or “THE VIRUS” each mass media player presented some facts and then hyped the stories into warp speed to ensure they got to the audience before their competitors.  Then as more information and data came out, scientists began publishing experiences and reports.  Then statistics from China and Italy were tallied and compared and with death tolls rising, the “Pandemic” came to life.  March madness, without the basketball.

The entire world is now in a frenzy.  Ok, there is no doubt the virus spread fast, but not as fast as the media coverage.  Now the world is in a panic.   Whoa, lets slow down, review what we know and compare to some numbers of the influenza outbreak that we experience every year.

This paper pulls together facts from public and published sources and organized in a way to make things a bit easier to understand.

Executive Summary

The United States president and other world leaders are taking unprecedented actions and creating massive economic and societal stress based on estimated death tolls and actions outlined in Imperial College COVID-Response Team, 16 Mar 2010 report, “Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand”.

Now that we are getting more real numbers, we need to re-look at death toll numbers attributed to “The Virus” and compare them to the flu.  Based on the numbers and looking at death rates by population versus death rate of only those symptomatically identified as having the virus, the projected death toll in the U.S. drops from the estimated 2.2.million indicated in the study to a more manageable 109,230.

Yes there will be higher death tolls, possibly 2-3 times higher than other flu seasons, but is the “Treatment” worse than the Disease?  Are the consequences of the current actions of isolation, social distancing and shutting down the U.S. economy worth a potential loss of some lives?

We have put the lives of our military on the line many times and lost more lives to protect our economy and freedom.  Should we not consider this a war that the world wages to protect the future of our global economy and global society?

These are the questions our President, our politicians and our country must make now before it’s too late.  “The only thing we have to Fear…Is Fear itself” – Franklin D Roosevelt

I have likened some of the current situation to the Abbott and Costello “Who’s on First” skit, not to make light of the issues, but to lighten our spirits as we contemplate our future.

Coronavirus – What is it?

Coronavirus is a general term for viruses that have a lot of points sticking out with knobs on top that resemble the top of a king’s crown.  It is not the specific virus affecting us today.  The strain of the virus is  SARS-CoV-2 “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2”, named by some international committee that makes up names for viruses, or COVID-19, meaning the Coronavirus Disease discovered in 2019 named by WHO, (No not the WHO from the Abbott and Costello skit “WHOs on first and WHATs on second…”), the World Health Organization.

Not only is this a Coronavirus, but it is a novel Coronavirus (No not because they’ll be writing books on this forever), but because it a new type of coronavirus that humans have never encountered in the past.  Why is this important?  Because scientists say the human being has no specific antibodies from past exposures to fight off this virus.  Therefore, this virus can spread faster than Usain Bolt can run the 100m dash.  All the body has to combat this virus is its normal, powerful immune system which defeats most illnesses AND cancers throughout a person’s life.

How fast and strong is the Coronavirus?

OK, we know it moves fast, it got around the world in about 80 days (hey I think Phileas Fogg and Passepartou did that in a hot air balloon) and is continuing to infect more and more people every day.  Well how did it travel so far and infect so many so fast?  Well, most people that have “The Virus” don’t even know they have it.  Why?

“The explosion of COVID-19 cases in China was largely driven by individuals with mild, limited, or no symptoms who went undetected,” says co-author Jeffrey Shaman, Ph.D., professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School.

In fact, in most people (80% or so) it will be defeated by their natural immune system and if they get physically ill it appears a lot like a cold or the “normal” flu, so they treat it like the flu and move on with their lives and pass it on to other people.  Also, people may have “The Virus” from 1-14 days before showing any symptoms, if they show any signs at all.

There is, however, a difference in who is more likely to get seriously ill or have a greater risk of dying from Covid-19. While 80% of people will have mild (or even no) symptoms, it’s thought that about 20% will get seriously or even critically ill. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high-risk groups include older adults along with people who have serious chronic medical conditions.

Now some people’s (20% or so) immune system is not too strong and they will get further complications like pneumonia and possibly more severe respiratory problems that put them in the hospital.  Even so, most of these will recover, but some will die (maybe as low as around 1% – more than 3%, the jury is still out as to the real mortality rate).  So now we know why it’s fast and can be strong.

What are the numbers?

Well even though scientists and statisticians use numbers to support their positions, sometimes the numbers are fuzzy, SWAGS (Scientific Wild Ass Guesses), or just not really known.  There can be wide ranges of estimates of the numbers of people that get the flu or might get “The Virus”, but here are some those numbers.

The CDC estimates 3%-20% of the United States population gets the flu every year.

The commonly cited 5% to 20% estimate was based on a study that examined both symptomatic and asymptomatic influenza illness, which means it also looked at people who may have had the flu but never knew it because they didn’t have any symptoms. The 3% to 11% range is an estimate of the proportion of people who have symptomatic flu illness. (Source: CDC Website)

The numbers for “The Virus” are more like WAGS (Wild Ass Guesses) since there is not enough solid data to even scientifically guess how many people have or will have “The Virus”.  (These numbers are like Abbott and Costello’s “I Don’t Know” is on third base)

Why? (“WHY” is the player in left field and some of the numbers you see in the media and reports are also from left field)  Remember many if not most of the people with “The Virus” won’t show any signs or will think they have a cold or the normal flu and never go to a doctor.  That stated you might hear that anywhere from 20%-80% of the population will get “The Virus”.

Now let’s talk about mortality rate.  So, the CDC has lots of numbers and data for the mortality rate for the flu.  Each year from 2010 – 2019 the number of deaths in the U.S. range from around 12,000 to over 60,000 with illness numbers ranging from 9.3 million to 45 million.  See diagram below from the CDC’s website.

The higher numbers come from the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 where the CDC estimated 60.8 million symptomatic cases (range: 43.3-89.3 million), with around 12,469 deaths in the U.S. (range: 8868-18,306) and between 151,700 – 575,400 deaths from flu/pneumonia worldwide.  The greatest number of deaths between 2010 and 2019 was in the flu season of 2017-2018 where the CDC estimated about 45 million symptomatic illnesses and around 61,000 deaths due to flu/pneumonia.  The overall U.S. population in 2010 was approx. 306 million and in 2020 approx. 330 million.

The approximate death rate due to flu/pneumonia ranges from  0.0038% to 0.019% when compared to the total U.S. population.

Now let’s look at the numbers for “The Virus”.   In the Imperial College COVID-Response Team, 16 Mar 2010 report, “Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand” the study predicts 81% of the U.S. (and Great Britain(GB)) population will be infected during this pandemic.  They also predict the death rate in the U.S. to be 2.2 million (510,000 in GB) if nothing is done to slow the rate of infection across the populations.

Unmitigated epidemic scenarios for GB and the US.  Projected deaths per day per 100,000 population in GB and US.

Why are the U.S. and State Governments shutting down schools and businesses? 

The death rate in the report is predicted to be extremely high and will be compounded by the hospitalization numbers being 30 times higher than the critical care bed capacity in the nations.  To reduce the number of deaths, the study recommends several courses of action to reduce the spike in hospitalizations the demand for critical care beds.

The U.S. and State governments are implementing the actions recommended in the report to include: Closure of schools and universities, Isolating anyone that shows signs of “The Virus”, Household Quarantine and Social Distancing, as well as combinations of those actions.  The results of the different actions are predicted to flatten the curves as indicated in the diagram below.

As indicated in the Figure 2 above, the more severe the restrictive actions, the flatter the curve.  That stated, the red line at the bottom of the figure shows the surge critical care bed capacity.  Every scenario indicates demand far exceeds the capacity and that by implementing the most restrictive recommended actions, the impact of “The Virus” on society and the economy extends until February 2021.  As indicated in the report, “Since the aim of mitigation is to minimise mortality, the interventions need to remain in place for as much of the epidemic period as possible.”    The report does state, keeping the most restrictive actions in place for the extended timeframe is unlikely since it means locking down businesses, schools and the population for over 11 months.

The Study estimates versus reality?

1. Let’s look as a few more numbers before we make decisions.

Based on the actual numbers being reported, the death toll in Wuhan, the initial epicenter of “The Virus”, per NBC News reporter Elizabeth Chuck in the article “Wuhan study offers new insight into fatality rate of Coronovirus” published 19 March 2020, the total rate of the people symptomatically identified as infected is 1.4%.  That stated, the death rate compared to the population of Wuhan is currently is only around 0.0099% (2169 deaths/22 million population).

Now let’s look at Italy.  As of 19 March 2020, there are 3405 death attributed to “The Virus” which when compared to the population of Italy, the death rate is 0.0056% (3405 deaths/60.55 million population).  Yes, there will be more deaths, so let’s bump the number of deaths to 20,000.  At 20,000 deaths the death rate compared to Italy’s population would be 0.033% (20,000 deaths/60.55 million population).

Now let’s compare that to the death rate from the Imperial College COVID-Response Team, 16 Mar 2010 report.  The study estimated 2.2 million deaths in the U.S.  That would mean the death rate is 0.66% (2.2 million deaths/331 million population), which is 20 times greater than the exaggerated death toll of 20,000 deaths in Italy.  If we apply the .033% to estimate to the U.S., the fatality toll will be 109,230 deaths which is magnitudes less than the study’s estimate of 2.2 million.

Is the “Treatment” worse than the disease?

If the death toll rate of deaths compared to the population of Wuhan and Italy are correct, the impact on the U.S. will be orders of magnitude less than the death toll projected in the “Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand” report,  109,203 deaths compared to 2.2 million.  This is a huge difference on society and would make the years 2020 a terrible year for flu and virus related deaths, but it is nowhere near the loss of over 2 million people in the United States.

Now I ask, are the governments of the United States and the world, overreacting to the perceived threat of “The Virus”?  Is it worth putting the entire world’s economies into the worst global recession or depress in the history of mankind?  Do we risk potential violence, turmoil and rioting that could erupt as the dis-ease of modern society grows to a boiling point.

Maybe we should reconsider the current direction now and re-examine the foundation of the decisions being made namely, the death toll projected in the Imperial College COVID-Response Team, 16 Mar 2010 report.  We have already rocked the core of our economic system, but we can reverse course before it’s too late.

“The only thing we have to Fear…Is Fear itself” – Franklin D Roosevelt

Let’s put GIVE A DAMN at short stop, and ask our left fielder WHY and not just accept the answer from our Center fielder BECAUSE, in order to enable our catcher TODAY to throw the ball back to our pitcher TOMORROW so he can throw the curve ball to win the World Series. 

You can bet 100% that Lobbyists on Capital Hill are working around the clock to ensure their needs are met.    They are putting enormous pressure on their Congressmen (Lackies) – (whom they have promised jobs when they retire)  – to do what they say.
You can imagine this institutionalized corruption will come at an enormous cost to small business in America – they getting only a fraction of what is necessary – to survive.

I am betting once again the larger focus of career politicians will be on keeping those companies happy that pay for their re-election – and all other interests are secondary.    After the bailout these executives will get to keep their private jets and beach homes with this massive injection of bailout money and continue the system they control and abuse.

I hope we have enough non corrupted politicians on Capital Hill to put Small Business first on the bailout package but unfortunately I see, in the end, an outcome that we, as taxpayers, will be again outraged by the “well connected” coming in first place.

Look – I am writing a prediction before the bailout package is released but remember I also talked for 90 minutes at the January Club Meeting about a Recession in 2020 and how it could occur.
I did not hear or read anyone else talking about that either.
I said in January — sell off your stock positions heavily as we are in an asset bubble – some listened and some did not.

Once again – I am just preparing members for what I think will happen.
If you want to “Make America Great Again” then outlaw lobbyists and
throw them all in prison.

Members,
As taxpayers we must be outraged at what is happening with the bailouts that are about to occur.  Please post this link to your social media site as it calls for specific action steps that we as taxpayers demand

https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/e/2PACX-1vQGK7toNi8L-sthEFDFkSo_KtYD5IcqD3J3P6HLvW–0tx_RBJXJjZz338vpsHHkllsUeijl9OnXuVB/pub