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Letter to the editor

Talk of the bay: Both sides in scam get what they deserve

By Times staff, wires
Published June 9, 2007

For once, a high-yield investment scam comes to a happy ending. In 2002, a Longboat Key woman put $100, 000 in a California-based scheme promising a 150 percent monthly return on a European trading pool of $150-million. John Everding made it look convincing by showing a copy of a $50, 000 check he said represented his own investment, which, of course, was phony. It took a while, but Everding was indicted in Tampa last year, and last month U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew sentenced him to 15 months in prison for wire fraud. His cohort, Phillip Torre, got a four-month sentence from a federal court in Ohio. Best of all: The victim, Dr. Carolyn Cline, got her money back.

OSI deal's delay piles on bond debt
The thrice-delayed shareholder vote to sell Outback Steakhouse parent OSI Restaurant Partners was costly in more ways than one. The private-equity group trying to take OSI private had to slightly sweeten its $3.2-billion offer before shareholders approved the deal last week. Now OSI will have to pay about $2-million more in annual interest expense on a bond sale because yields have climbed in recent weeks. The company canceled the $550-million bond sale last month as the proposed sale of the company was in doubt. "The last time the market loved this bond, " said Justin Monteith, a Vermont-based analyst at high-yield research firm KDP Investment Advisors. "There's a little bit more debt on the deal now."

Correction
The name of Barbara A. Barmore, who owns the Pie Factory in Largo, was misspelled in a story Friday.

[Last modified June 8, 2007, 23:05:40]