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Talk of the bay: Shareholders publicly object to private desire

By Times Staff Writer
Published March 7, 2007

A recent bid by insiders to take Ablest Inc. private is "grossly unfair," according to a shareholder suit filed Monday in Hillsborough County. Despite being too low, attorneys for plaintiff David Ryman claim, the $7.50-per-share proposal is a "foregone conclusion" because the bidders - chairman Charles Heist III, CEO Kurt Moore and No. 2 shareholder Donald Burton - control 62 percent of Ablest's stock. The Tampa staffing company said in January that it was in the "beginning stages" of considering the proposal.

Media portrayal responses: suits

Two bay area residents went to court in Tampa last week over negative media coverage. Ernie Haire Ford Inc. says Tampa lawyer J. Daniel Clark defamed it in a 2006 Tampa Tribune article about VIN etching, a theft-deterrence service in which a car's serial number is etched on its windows. Eric Canonico, a self-described reality show producer who owns a Web-based casting business, says his reputation was tarnished by an Inside Edition report that appeared on WFTS-TV Ch.28 in 2003. Ernie Haire Ford is seeking $5-million plus costs and attorneys' fees. A class-action suit against the auto dealer is ongoing.

Agents dig own graves with fraud

Those agents who sell Medicare Advantage plans to the elderly over free lunches can be pretty persuasive. Apparently, in Georgia, independent agents enrolled eight dead people in WellCare's private fee-for-service Medicare plan in December. The Tampa company said it quickly discovered the fraud and fired two agents, among 7,000 independent contractors used by the insurer. A spokesman for the Georgia Department of Insurance said it became aware of the fraudulent activity through a consumer complaint and is investigating three agents., but WellCare itself is not part of the probe.

[Last modified March 6, 2007, 23:08:35]