cybernet news fraud suit

[burn the bush]

http://woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2591580&nav=0RcdTLbg

Lawsuit filed against The CyberNET Group in Grand Rapids

Barton Watson
Barton Watson

(Grand Rapids, November 19, 2004, 6:01 p.m.) A lawsuit has now been filed against a Grand Rapids Internet company after federal agents raided the building.

On Wednesday, federal investigators shut down The CyberNET Group on South Division Avenue and locked employees out. Sources tell 24 Hour News 8 that investigators were looking for evidence of wire, mail, and bank fraud. They hauled away computers and financial records linked to the company.

Employees returned to work Friday for the time since the raid. They entered through a backdoor of the world headquarters facility on South Division Avenue.

Now 24 Hour News 8 has obtained copies of a lawsuit filed Thursday against CyberCo, the parent company of The CyberNet Group. Fraud is one of the allegations outlined in the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, Charter One Vendor Finance of Illinois says it loaned The CyberNET Group $3 million so the company could buy 66 computer servers. But in the lawsuit, Charter One said it could only find evidence of 25 servers at the company's Grand Rapids' headquarters, and The CyberNET Group could not provide an explanation. Charter One believes The CyberNET Group misused the loaned money and used false information to secure the loan.

Charter One says in the lawsuit that The CyberNET Group CEO Barton Watson has a longstanding and uninterrupted history of perpetrating fraud.

Barton Watson was not around during the raid, not in his office, or not at his million dollar home in Ada. He served time in prison in 1994 after a federal judge sentenced him to one to three years for fraud.

According to court documents obtained by 24 Hour News 8, at the time of that sentencing Watson told the judge, “I suffer from a great deal of concern about how I got from A to Z. I have a lot of regret about what happened, not just because I stole a great deal of money from a number of people, but particularly in that I abused their trust and their friendship.”

Later, he said, “I'm still only 26, moving on to 27-years-old, and I'd like a chance to live life, and forever I will have this felony hanging over my head.”

After prison, Watson went on and found The CyberNET Group, an international Internet company. Since the federal raid and subsequent news reports, 24 Hour News 8 has been flooded with e-mails and calls from former employees, alleging years of misconduct.

Although back on the job, employees admit being worried if The CyberNET Group will remain open and operating. Employees were expected to get a more detailed description and explanation Friday about why federal investigators came to their place of business.

[burn the bush]

1. another story with more info on this

http://woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2578803

[Verve]

2. Please post this again in presidential elections.

Either the FBI sting on Wednesday was unrelated to vote fraud or...excuse me, let me put on my tinfoil hat,...this allegation of missusing funds and using false information to secure a loan is cover up for Bigger things!

[burn the bush]

3. what?

you posted to bitch about where i posted? This is general discussion isnt it? And we are trying to find info on Cybernet and this info was asked for, so why r u bitching about where it was posted.

[Verve]

4. I didn't mean to get you upset. I just wanted your thread to get more

exposure. Some of the other threads about CyberNet were in the presidential elections.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=61625

[burn the bush]

5. so sorry, thought you were saying

pooh pooh this doesn't matter, it shouldn't be here. Sorry, not getting much sleep lately.

[Verve]

6. I hear ya! No offense taken. Please, though,re-post this. I do think it

is important. I'm interested in hearing what other people think about it. The one thing I'm curious about is the FBI raid. In one of the other articles it stated the raid was pretty drastic. Does the accusation of bank fraud in your article fit the type of FBI raid performed on Wednesday? Is this type of raid common for lawsuits like this? I don't know? I'm not an attorney but I'd like to find out.