Erick Mathe had a vision of creating a media empire. Well, maybe not an empire, more of a small keep. His plan was to broadcast over Low Power Television Service. Those are locally-oriented television broadcasts in small communities. Mr. Mathe had a line up of streaming music and infomercials. He just needed capital to get the business going.
It won’t surprise you that Mathe has been charged with fraud. There is an SEC complaint in Florida and a criminal indictment in Pennsylvania. Mathe has not responded to the charges so I have to rely on the government’s view of the facts. It looks like Mathe saw that raising the capital and taking a commission was more lucrative than running the television business.
Vision Broadcast Network had four stations lined up for delivery of its content and said that it had licenses for 70 more. It’s “Ask the Specialist” subsidiary was lined up to provide medical educational resources. That subsidiary was particularly useful because it put Mathe in contact with wealthy doctors who were potential investors.
What caught my eye was a registration filing that Vision Broadcast Network made in 2009 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It looks like it had the good intention at that time to be a legitimate business.
In the filing, there is a Code of Ethics as an exhibit.
“Act in good faith, responsibly, with due care, competence and diligence, without misrepresenting material facts or allowing one’s independent judgment to be subordinated. “
Mathe met Ashif Jiwa who persuaded him that he could help raise additional investment funds because he operated a hedge fund and acted as a financial adviser to the Prince of Dubai. Mathe paid Jiwa a commission on capital raised. At some point Mathe decided that he should also pay himself a commission for capital raised.
Perhaps that was the turning point. Mathe became more focused on raising capital than operating his business. According to the SEC complaint Mathe was misleading investors about revenue, capital commitments, and the success of the business.
He was ignoring his own code of ethics.
Sources:
- SEC Complaint against Erick Laszlo Mathe and Ashif Jiwa
- DOJ Complaint against Erick Laszlo Mathe and Ashif Jiwa
- Press release on action against Laszlo Mathe and Ashif Jiwa
- Form 10 Registration Statement for Vision Broadcast Network
- Code of Ethics for Vision Broadcast Network
- FCC Guide to Low Power Television (LPTV) Service
- Ask the Specialist Promo Video
- Image of WTVR Television Antenna is by Jim
My husband & I invested in one of his other companies “MedEx Direct”. Same thing, but I can’t afford to hire an attorney. My money is gone!
Federal Court date is Dec. 1st. Erick, your time is coming, just like I said! I bet you won’t sleep as we’ll in prison like you did knowing you were scamming every investor you took money from. Justice is about to be served!
Let’s hope he at least has the moral capacity to not use his two children (who he has kept them from their mother for the past 5 years and she has been fighting in the legal system of Florida for) to get a lighter sentence with false claims of being sole custodian, (which he has never filed custody for) as he did with getting out of a $50,000.00 bail bond. They do not need to go down with him, or be used once again for his sole purpose to escape justice. He also has a son in Florida custody that he had/has chosen to completely abandon (who ended up there because he abandoned his wife and special needs child and abducted the two other children and refused to allow them to communicate with their mother, fulfilling a constant threat to her when things went south in their marriage) and now that all is exposed it explains a lot of why he would not provide financial information to attain custody of any of their children. Please pray for those innocents that he has used to his benefit, to hide his deceitfulness, that they may be turned over to their mother who is fighting so hard to give them the safe and secure environment they so deserve. The only reason he holds on to them is to bring revenge upon their mother who didn’t die when he put her out in the streets of Florida with no where to go, no job since she fulfilled her agreement to be a stay at home mom for the 10 years that she wasted with him, and took their two “normal” children and abandoned their special needs son to the streets of Florida as well. We pray that justice will be obtained for them as well as the victims of his injustice.
I can’t wait til Monday! I hope he sits in prison for a long time. Susan, you are right about his kids, they don’t deserve any of this!
The clock is ticking for Erick!
I can only imagine that Erick was caught – up with ashif. He is a very evil person. I knew him in Vancouver…ashif took everyone–including my Father–for a very bad ride in the years of knowing him. He’s diabolical.
Ouch. Just read above what Erick did. Both erick and ashif deserve the worst possible punishment.
Funny Ashif is now out and right back at it. He tried to harrass me today into providing him with funds he has NO right to at all. He will never stop.
More charges for Erick. Looks like another count of wire fraud & another count of money laundering. That makes two each. I hope he rots in prison!