Why isn't anyone in jail?

One of the most frequent questions I am asked about the Trans Continental Airlines debacle is "why isn't anyone in jail?" The short answer is that it's because no one has been charged with a crime. The Office of Financial Regulation, which is investigating this case, has only civil authority, not criminal. Criminal charges, if there are to be any, would have to be filed by the U.S. attorney's office or one of the state attorney's offices.

Have any of you considered calling your local police or sheriff's office, the FBI or any other law enforcement agency and reporting that you are a theft victim? If you have made such a call or filled out a report with local authorities, please post your experience here as a comment. 

Comments

[Alan Gross]

David, Helen, and all!

I find this news about the final demise of TransContinental Airlines to be quite interesting. Lou and I had a big falling out in the very early 1980's. Lou was afraid that I might have ruined everything because he heard that I sent a letter to Theodor Wullenkemper asking about his involvement with Airship Enterprises.

In 1980, while doing some research about the aviation industry, I came across a book listing various airline companies and was shocked to see a listing for Lou's TransContinental Airlines. The shock wore off quickly when I saw that it was a company based out of Ypsilanti, Michigan.

I tried to find out if two airline companies can share a name. I found out that it was a no no. Armed with this information, I called up the company listed in the directory and the gentleman I spoke with in Ypsilanti said he never heard of Lou Pearlman and that they were a small company with prop planes.

I told a few of Pearlman's associates that I suspected that something was amiss because there was another TransContinental in Michigan. I was careful not to give too much details about my call and left out the specific location of the company, Ypsilanti.

A few months later, someone must have told Pearlman that I was doing my own independent research while the Jordache insurance trial was in progress. He called me in up in a panic when someone suggested that I wrote to Wullenkemper just prior to a trip to Germany that he had planned.

During a half hour phone conversation, Pearlman was trying to intimidate me (it didn't work) and put an end to my investigation. He specifically said to me, "People are calling me from Detroit, friends of mine..." Busted! He didn't know the company was in Ypsilanti. I believe that my discovery was the first time that Lou knew of TransContinental Airlines in Michigan.

During the call, he threatened to sue me for mailicious mischief because I was trying to learn the truth behind the lies he was telling in order to attract clients and investors and keep employees in the dark. Yeah, I wrote to Wullenkemper but his response was a denial in having anything to do with Pearlman, a fact that I knew was not true.

[Helen Huntley]

David-
That Trans Continental Airlines was a different company, unrelated to Pearlman's Trans Continental Airlines.

[David Bertrand]

Interesting find...curious to know the outcome. I was a captain for Trans Continental Airlines, Inc based at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, MI.

The airline was owned by Scott Kalitta, the race car driver. He was forced to shut the airline down after a major FAA investigation that I initiated before 1999.

Scott Kalitta moved to Florida and took a few employees with him, from what I understand. I do not know if he sold the airline name or whatever. I do know the FAA was not going to certificate the airline...period.

If Scott is connected, then that is the source for which you need to look.

Good luck

[alliance]

here is the link to the us5 award show.
one band member claims lou perlman as their manager and you can see lou at 4:15min. this is happened two weeks bevore in germany.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Zm5ZXG8MM&mode=related&search=

[allaince]

my company and my partners company in los angeles worked together with lou's latest band us5 www.us5.com
we have produced the last musicvideo and since september 2006 we have not seen the final payment.
the amount is rather small compared to what i read in the web and press, but we are not happy of that leck of money.
lou is co-owner of us5. us5 is managed by triple m music gmbh in berlin-germany http://www.triple-m-music.de/
they also have a firm in moscow russia http://www.us5.ru/ (check the website and you will find the transcon management logo and link on the start page.)
lou is a co-owner there too.maybe the planes will be found there ???
the owners are mark dollar and mike michaels. lou is definitly having shares on that band and that band is recieving money on the account of GEMA(guild of musicians) that collect the money from radio-plays and tv-plays, as well as from record sales.
one way to see some cash is to have a title against lou and than freeze the GEMA account in germany and/ore other countries. those accounts exist everywhere in europe, one account per european country !
it will probable not cover everybody, but maybe some of you will see something back.

this man needs to be locked away.

if officials look for him, lou was seen in germany two weeks bevore in berlin.
this was prodcastet on tv as he was at an award show with us5.
i think if he is not in germany he might be in the uk as mandy newland is from london.
alternative you will find him in spain, as triplem has a major penthouse there
ore moscow.

we now that lou is verry much into boys and we heard he loves to be in thailand too.

us5 is going on tour soon in asia. i strongly believ that you will find lou where ever the band us5 is, as this band is only big because lou is behind.
(that is bevore the scandl) if lous account are frozen liquidity will come from triplem berlin & moscow.

i hope this is helpfull to you - good luck and strong nerves.

if you have questions ore need support from germany, please email me any time.

[seb]

02/15-
good afternoon.
i am the executor of estate of rae lehrer. she always called lou p. "son" and he always called her "mom". that relationship cost the estate over 1.8 million dollars. I live on long island new york, and am organizing t-con investors who invested through Elaine ("Eleyana") Calix, another of lp's fabled salespeople. i feel certain she knew what was going on.

does anyone know the home address of kristen finger. we are about to commence a lawsuit against her to try and recover some of my wife's money, kristen had sent my wife a letter promising to send the money "a few days" after July 4th, 2006 weekend.
thanks,
seb

[anonymous]

msc

read Les Henderson's book. It describes the massive cover-up of Lou Pearlman's frauds by the Florida Attorney Generals Office a few years back...

who was the Attorney General at the time?

none other than Governor Crist

here is a link:

http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/index.htm

[msc]

Taken form the 2004 story referenced above:
“This is kind of like a saga, a miniseries,” Rosenberger says. “I hope you know how bad this is for them, to use and abuse the court system.”

Rosenberger and Torelli both point to the fact that the state attorney’s lead investigator on the Pearlman case, Jacqueline Dowd, was forced to resign in February from the attorney general’s office. They believe she was focusing too aggressively on Pearlman. A few months after she was replaced, the case disappeared.

Dowd declined to comment. “I honestly don’t know what good it would do for me to get involved in the Pearlman case,” she told me. (Fashion Rock’s lawyer, Reca Rene Chamberlain, didn’t return phone calls.)

Expect the war of words to continue. Asked if he plans to retaliate against Fashion Rock for calling him “mentally unstable,” Rosenberger hints that “things are in the works

[msc]

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/columns/story.asp?id=3556
This 2004 story shows states lead investigator was forced to resign prior to dropping the investigation at that time. The report details alot of characters and accusations that have come back to haunt us today.

[msc]

Floridawyn, guess I missed the stock opportunity even though I got in under the wire as required, said my agent. What a joke. Ok so we live in the "Sunshine State", will we shed any light on ALL the players in this mess, ever? We can only hope and not allow frustration to set in as we keep attention on the state as well as the obvious.

[anonymous]

Helen: I took your advice,idecided to contact a law enforcement agency with my complaint What a joke. 1st of all,all the agencys I contacted have not heard of Lou Pearlman ,trans continental, or My agent Churchill financial. But here we go anyway with my attempt. 1st call,Pinellas County Sherriffs, was directed to 4 different people having to completely explain my story to ea one.The last detective at the sherriffs office made the decision that I had to contact the State of Floridas Attorney Generals office.2nd call FL States Attorney,left my tel # and did get a call back in about 2 hours.The lady at that office was not aware of the case and switched me over to another investigator .After explaining my story again was told by him that the case was being handled by the State Of Florida Finacial Services and Regulators. I was told to contact them which I did and was told everything is being done that was possible and this lady also mentioned to me what we have been reading in the papers the court appointed receiver has not been able to locate any monies or assets at all.After all this work on my part, that was great news to hear. PS, I never did get my $157,000 theft complaint out to anybody. What a complete waste of time

[Susan]

This is sickening ... to think we all fell so completely for this ridiculous scheme! MSC is correct ... "So many foolish moments as I look back, all casually explained away by the sales agent everytime ANYTHING came up." Hindsight sure is a lot clearer than foresight. It will never happen to any of us again. Unfortunately for some it is soooo late.

[msc]

Susan, not only do I recall the red stamp to change the account numbers "for our safety", but the interest was also "readjusted". So many foolish moments as I look back, all casually explained away by the sales agent everytime ANYTHING came up.

[anonymous]

why is it I get a feeling that this Mark Tolner is going to be added as a defendant in the State of Florida lawsuits?

[Les Henderson]

Yes, that's the one. Here is what he had to say about it on his personal website after suing me.

"The tissue of lies and unsubstantiated allegations about Mark Tolner can fortunately be seen for what they are because of an exhaustive enquiry by the Florida Attorney General which revealed the truth behind the campaign aimed at Tolner and the companies he was involved with - Options Talent, Trans Continental Talent and Fashion Rock."

"Here is the documentary proof of his innocence that was obtained from the Florida Attorney General's office by way of a Public Records Request. Mark Tolner was at the helm of these businesses during this period of time."

"The people behind this campaign of lies, hate and slander will "reap what they sow" when they are either brave enough to come out into the open and prove their allegations with factual evidence or are tracked down during the pendency of the US legal actions."

"They make statements and claims in direct contradiction to reports from authorized agents of state and federal governments. Mr. Tolner was employed by a corporation in the state of Florida and not personally liable for anything. Furthermore there has not been one validated incident of wrong doing whatsoever in relation to these businesses, so what is he liable or responsible for again???"

[anonymous]

Mr. Henderson,

Is this the same "Mark Tolner" that was CEO of Trans Continental Talent, Inc., one of the relief Defendants?

http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?a1=DETFIL&n1=F01000001555&n2=NAMFWD&n3=0003&n4=N&r1=&r2=&r3=&r4=TRANSCONTINENTALTALENT&r5=

[Les Henderson]

Floridagwyn

I am hopeful that your group will keep me informed of developments in return for such insights. Might I suggest the use of a conferencing service I belong to?

Theodor was mentioned on German TV with Lou in the past six months discussing US-5.

FAA registrations show that TCA and affiliated companies had only five planes and four blimps.

registry.faa.gov

The planes appear to be old, grounded, seized or in Africa, the blimps may be in the UK or Germany but were deemed worthless by Lou in SEC filings. Mark Tolner is from the UK, ran his model scam, and may know about AIRSHIP INDUSTRIES UK LTD.

N-Number Serial Number Manufacturer Name
Model Name

181SK

45910 MCDONNELL DOUGLAS
DC-8-62 TRANS CONTINENTAL AIRLINES INC

183SK

45904 DOUGLAS
DC-8-62F TRANS CONTINENTAL AIRLINES INC

96040

DOUGLAS
DC-6 TRANS CONTINENTAL AIRLINES INC

8745A

D-2167 BEECH
A35 TRANS CONTINENTAL AVIATION CORP INC

365TC

41 GRUMMAN
G-1159 TRANS CONTINENTAL JET SHARES LLC

501LP

AIRSHIP INDUSTRIES UK LTD
SKYSHIP 500 TRANS CONTINENTAL LEASING INC

502LP

AIRSHIP INDUSTRIES UK LTD
SKYSHIP 500HL TRANS CONTINENTAL LEASING INC

503LP

1214/07 AIRSHIP INDUSTRIES UK LTD
SKYSHIP 500HL TRANS CONTINENTAL LEASING INC

504LP

1214/09 AIRSHIP INDUSTRIES UK LTD
SKYSHIP 500 TRANS CONTINENTAL LEASING INC

[anonymous]

Floridagwyn

wake up!

According to the court appointed received, there are no assets in Trans Continental Airlines, Inc.....there are no planes in Trans Continental Airlines, Inc., whether in Florida or around the world...no planes, period.

[Floridagwyn]

Les, I am a T-Con stockholder. Thanks for your submission of the name of the german billionaire. There has been alot of confusion over the spelling of his name. He does exist. One of the stockholders, and an old friend of Lou, met him at T-Con offices some years ago. He described him as an elderly man who arrived at the offices with a young blond on each arm. The big question is-----is this guy still alive???????? There is reason to believe that Lou has been with him in Germany recently.

[Les Henderson]

The name is actually Theodor Wullenkemper (the U has the two dots above to denote UE). It is also spelled Theodor Wuellenkemper.

Although there are enough indicators to suggest that this person is a fabrication, a pseudonym or an older German Pearlman clone, (since he owns a small airline with blimps and likes boy-bands) there are also factors which suggest he is quite real, albeit in German.

A billionaire come to save Pearlman in his time of need? Another of Lou's lies I think.

See www.ltu.com and www.wdl-luftschiff.de

The first to prove he exists (beyond the outdated website biography) wins a prize. Maybe Lou is hiding out in his basement.

[Susan]

I called the FBI in Tampa and they recommended that we call the FBI in Orange County. I am doing that on Monday. I hear that the State of Florida investigated the savings account scheme at Trans Con as early as 1995 and that nothing was done. I also hear that Pearlman was a big Crist supporter during the election and that Crist "looked the other way". My daughter, who is a lawyer, is calling the Attorney General's office on Monday.

Do you remember the Trans Con statements we all received in March, 2006? They had a red rubber stamp on them which said "Revised". It further indicated that our account numbers had been changed for to ensure our security. What do you think about that in retrospect?

[Floridagwyn]

There are not alot of stockholders in TransContinential Airlines ( the parent company). A group of the stockholders have been communicating for years, however we are now looking for any additional stockholders out there. This means holders of T-Con stocks only--not those who are involved in the EISA mess. If you are, or know of any stockholders, please e-mail name & contact info to h20joe40@hotmail.com We, the stockholders, are formulating a plan to address how to best serve our interests. There are weeekly conference calls and ALL stockholders are welcome. Most importantly we need to know who you are and how many of us there really are. The info we have now is that there are fewer than 100 stockholders with investments of more than 20 million.

[Floridagwyn]

Welenkamper is supposed to own 70% of the TransCon Companies. He is the person Lou referred to as possibly assisting with clearing up this mess.

[bop]

to: Les Henderson

does the name Theodore Welenkamper mean anything to you. I understand this is one of Lou's partners

[Floridagwyn]

I have been a stockholder in TransContinental Airlines for 11 years. I had my life savings in this---and attended a stockholders meeting at Church Street Station in Oct. where Lou passed around a financial statement that showed mega profits and indicating that the company had a PE of 7-8. There are many big money people who are stockholders and the got screwed too. As to Lou's where-abouts----he returned to US on Mon. 2/5 from Germany. We don't know where he is in US but think he is in NY. He has been in contact with his executive Assistant, Amanda Newland. She refuses to devulge any information as to Lou's where-abouts, tells some people she hasn't talked to him, tells others she is speaking with him daily. She has been Lou's right-hand man for years and is VERY loyal to Lou. Lou claims that his partner---who lives in Germany and is apparently a billionaire, and owns 70% of the businesses is going to bail this mess out. We stockholders are praying this is true. There are MANY TransCon companies. It seems it has been Lou's pratice to put everything under seperate companies and locate those companies all over the world. There are still revenues coming into the TransContinental Companies ie. royalties from Backstreet Boys ( Lou owns the trademarked name for BSB & NYSC). There is a company in Germany that produces top TV shows, a new group US5 is performing in Europe and is #1 on the hit parade, with platinium records. There were about 48 large planes in the TransCon fleet---They only found 1 old plane here in Florida---we the stockholders, think the rest of the planes are based in Germany. There is a national pizza/ deli frachise (New Yor Pizza & Deli) or NYPD, which is still in operation. Just to cheer everyone up---Lou wears a different Rolex everyday and in Oct he told us he had just ordered a new Rolls for $450,000. I want to see the SOB in prison orange for a long, long time and I'm sure it will come. We are in the very early stages in this whole process---it takes time for everything to get in place and maybe the companies will indeed be bailed out by the partner in Germany. Here's hoping!