Arizona firm goes after LV financial adviser

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2002 | 11:26 a.m.

Simula Inc. of Tempe, Ariz., said today it wants federal and state regulators to investigate a Las Vegas-based investment adviser for possible securities laws violations as part of its efforts to protect its trade secrets from unauthorized dissemination through Internet "chatrooms" and message boards.

The aerospace, defense and automotive safety systems maker said it was investigating employees who had allegedly violated company policy by posting company information online when it discovered the Las Vegas investment advisor -- Michael A. Sofia -- posting under the name of "MASinVegas" and using at least 13 pseudonyms.

Simula said the adviser posted a message using one name, responded to his own message using another name, and on other occasions under another name, "congratulated" himself for his claimed insights into Simula's operations and prospects.

Sofia said he did post messages as "MASinVegas," but denied Simula's allegations of wrongdoing and said he didn't violate any securities laws.

"In my opinion, the purpose of this (Simula) press release is to divert attention from management's failure to do what it itself said was a primary priority, namely to reduce debt. I post on Yahoo! to remind people that Simula has not lived up to its promises and that has affected the value of Simula stock negatively," Sofia said. "It's my suspicion that they didn't name me so that I can't sue them."

"In addition, I've done other things including appearing at Simula's annual meeting and communicating with its board of directors and individual board members in hopes that this will encourage management to do what's right for shareholders. When they make progress on reducing company debt, I'll have little reason to post messages."