Universal Express was one of those estimated six thousand small public companies to be destroyed by the naked short sellers in league with the previous SEC administrations, that had been paid (yes, paid) for every counterfeit naked short share traded.
These SEC actions to fraudulently harass, destroy and silence Mr. Altomare on behalf of the naked shorters culminated on May 2, 2008 when, at the behest of an SEC sympathetic Federal Judge, Mr. Altomare was brutally incarcerated into chained solitary and illegal confinement for eighty three (83) days under a now purged civil contempt charge. Mr. Altomare, after a 40 pound weight loss, due to being imprisoned, then defiantly proved the civil contempt charge to be improper. This former 12 year U.S. Marine & U.S. Army veteran, Political Candidate, college Educator, and internationally recognized business leader refused to allow this violation and abuse of governmental power to end there.
It is time for the guilty to be exposed and punished, and the innocent to be vindicated and rewarded.
INTRODUCTION – Questionable Destination
As I walk hazily through this quiet and impersonal Florida airport, I wonder if today's Americans will ever again protest any governmental injustice. Has the Patriot Act erased our innate ability and Constitutional right to question authority? Just observe the obedient, lemming-like passengers mindlessly undressing on those “security” check-in lines. Have we lost our love of freedom and the American independent personae? Have the non-uniformed Americans (us) been effectively neutralized by the uniformed TSA “security providers” under the imposed fears of terror from the Patriot Act, which paralyze us from even thinking about challenging this daily cattle herding?
I reluctantly find myself sitting on this commercial airplane rushing me to New York. I know today that I possess the courage and integrity to stand up to misguided governmental forces. I have definitely proven that I would not watch silently as I or my neighbor was abused or even confined for speaking the truth. Lost in the mist of the clouds outside my window, I consider injustices to others, like my shareholders, no differently than an abuse of the rights of my own children. My cries for help on this matter fell on deaf ears … tragically, as high as those in the White House.
Would most Americans place themselves on this plane with me, or would they avoid engagement with anything that did not directly affect their lives and could endanger their own personal freedoms? Would they stand up for a stranger, let alone as I have, hundreds of thousands of them? How long would they protest an injustice, and would they jeopardize their own safety zone for it? Today, knowing what may await me at the end of this flight … I’m not sure I’d blame them if they wouldn’t.
Most of us have convinced ourselves that our American society is beyond despotic behavior. There are rules to prevent seizure of our property. Planted and false stories and propagandized accusations against innocents are no longer possible. For decades, I have rested comfortably knowing we possess a fair judiciary and responsive media that will eventually expose any unchecked governmental abuses. Or do we? Did I need this flight to make me question these assumptions?
I have been experiencing a legal situation which not only exposes a series of injustices, but has the potential to also prevent future regulatory abuses. As my eyes tear up, I must admit that I am questioning if it is all worth the battle. Why didn't anyone in our government do as they promised and act in the best interests of its citizens?
My unwanted flight today seems to be uneventful and not life defining to others. Or is it? Will this particular flight be remembered and studied in universities and history books? Do others on the plane realize the significance of this flight? Should they save their boarding passes?
During the past fourteen years my developing public company demonstrated good old American know-how and created a well-respected and insightful business model. Our six new subsidiaries were growing in much needed security related businesses and tens of thousands of shareholders believed passionately in our future success. My company employees, partners and consultants grew in number to thousands from only my Wife and me at its inception. All was progressing as planned and then the initial reason I ended up boarding this flight occurred. I may never know by whom, but the company and I were targeted to be destroyed. Was it after I exposed a larger than Watergate cover-up by an agency of our government or did it occur as a result of our $700,000,000 victory party?
After I arrive at my unique destination, will I be told to return home? I expect the media will be there. Maybe simply getting onto this plane will be enough for my misguided nemesis, and I will then be told to return. As a rule, altar boys, Marines, college professors and business leaders like me are not sent on journeys like this. Does everyone on the plane know why I am here, or are they unaware of the historical significance of this airplane's "wheels up" event?
I remember as a young boy the clean and pure smell of the religious drapings worn by a nun or a priest. Why do I flash back to that now? Do the drapings of our Judges and government agency employees still smell that pure to me today?
Have you ever wished for time to stop while a part of you paradoxically wanted that same time to speed up? I've nurtured my diet coke and exhausted small talk with my neighboring passengers. I bet they don't know why I am here. I wonder how many messages will be on my cell phone after this flight.
The Marine Corps offers basic, advanced, and survival training to those of us willing to participate. Today I am embarking on an unusual life journey and find myself unsure if that training will make today's events result in a life victory lap, or end up as a premature eulogy. My company was like working in Camelot. But was I King Arthur or Merlin? Only these soon to be shared travails may crystallize and answer that question.
When Camelot ended, did it self-destruct or was it overtaken by villains? Did their marauders also seize, liquidate, plunder, burn, and shred those positive memories and were the victims, like me, simply ordered onto a transport like my symbolic plane?
I wonder if I should have flown yesterday or if today’s flight decision was the better one. In either event, it won't be until later tonight that I can relate the events, actions and stories that may unfold after this plane lands in New York City.
As the plane now taxies to the gate, despite my desire to stick my leg out the window, like a child on a fast moving sled to slow it down; my hands, normally dry, moisten. My occasionally intense eyes, now steel to watch the opening of the cabin door. Who might be charging on? I keep re-reading my full page New York Times response ad to this situation in the event there are any media questions.
I see that there were fifty-nine phone messages left during my two and a half hour flight. Listening to these messages will not be possible as my legal team greets me at the gate, not outside security. Can one man actually do this to me? How will my parents, children, grandchildren and wife process what may very soon happen? Will the following days be an adventure, a nightmare, a non-event or a life altering tragedy?
In less than an hour in the now awkwardly silent ride from the airport to lower Manhattan, a 60 year old, respected former political candidate, businessman and law abiding American citizen, without a parking ticket, will actually change his name from Richard Altomare (that's me) to 60981-054. I will report to the Metropolitan Correction Center to be placed in a high security solitary jail cell with no permitted trial, no crime committed and no knowledge of the events he and you, the reader, are about to share. Over the following unbelievable days we will better understand together one of America's best kept dark secrets, never before so clearly exposed by an innocent whistleblower.
During this soon to be life defining