WARRENTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Belmont Partners, LLC today issued the following statement in response to the lawsuit filed December 12, 2011 by the Securities and Exchange Commission:
We are profoundly disappointed by the erroneous allegations made against Belmont Partners LLC and Joseph Meuse in the lawsuit filed Monday by the Securities and Exchange Commission. We have fully cooperated with the SEC’s investigation regarding Alternative Green Technologies (“the Company”) and were taken by surprise by the SEC’s precipitous filing. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves and believe we will prevail on the merits of the case.
Contrary to the SEC’s allegations, we were not involved in, nor did we have any knowledge of, the alleged stock selling scheme by the Company and its current management. We only briefly held an interest in the Company before selling it to Sierra Range Holdings, an entity controlled by Mitchell Segal, a New York attorney with a stellar resume. At the time, nothing indicated to us that Mr. Segal, a respected attorney and accountant with over 25 years of experience, had anything but honorable intentions for the Company. We have never had any contact with the other defendants, Howard Borg, Janacor Inc., Panascope Capital, David Ryan, Vikram Khanna, Senior Capital Services Inc., or Thomas Russo, and were completely unaware of their involvement with the Company or Mr. Segal’s stock sales. We had no knowledge of, or involvement with, any promotional campaign related to the Company, the trading intentions or stock sales by Mr. Segal or anyone else. Furthermore, except for the purchase price paid by Mr. Segal and Sierra Range Holdings for our interest in the Company we received nothing from any of the defendants.
Given our undisputed lack of involvement in the stock manipulation described in the SEC’s complaint, we are genuinely disturbed by the SEC’s focus on our firm and Mr. Meuse, and view as unfair and inappropriate the quoted disparaging remarks by a high-ranking SEC official contained in the agency’s litigation release, which glosses over the alleged egregious conduct of the other defendants.
We are confident that the facts, when presented to the Court, will refute the SEC’s erroneous claims.