Len Krick Update — State Case Closed

The following email is from Len Krick regarding his case with the State of Nevada Securities Division. Knowing how important the details and outcome of his case are to all brokers, Len has sent us a great deal of information.  Because his case is extremely pertinent to all brokers, we will be sharing this information over the next week or so. 

Today’s posting will just include his email and a link to the Nevada no-action letter.  Later this week we will post the write-up he refers to below.

Dear Fellow Business Brokers and Supporters:

Each of you has sent me e-mails of support and interest in my fight with the State of Nevada. So, I thought I would bring you up to speed now that I have resolved that issue. My civil case in Federal Court is still in full swing, though.

The “case is closed” with my State of Nevada Securities Division’s investigation; I received and paid my “assessment.” Now I can provide the detail I promised. I have no idea if this will help or hurt the AM&AA’s “Campaign For Clarity” or the IBBA’s STITF efforts with the SEC.

• On one hand it shows that the SEC’s “CBI” No-Action Letter of November 8, 2006, does not really give business brokers the “adequate cover” they need from State Regulators; the subpoena and subsequent huge expenditure of time and money spent responding and defending, prove that.
• On the other hand, at the end of the day, the State issued a no-action letter to me. Until the law is changed, this will serve as my shield in Nevada (as long as I comply with the nine items I identified in my proposal to the State).

In my mind, the kind of exemption provided in the South Dakota law is the answer, but on both a State and Federal level.

A “theoretical” problem became my nightmare. Maybe we can all learn from it. As you will see, in the attached write-up and documents, I have given a whole lot of thought on this subject. You may not agree with some of it, and, obviously, I am not an attorney. However, I am one of you, and each of you has the same potential exposure when the parties decided, without your permission, to restructure the transaction as the sale of equity, and put you in “harm’s way.”

I have provided a copy of each one of the primary documents involved with this case, and to which I refer in the write-up. Obviously, you can read the write-up without reading all the detail. For those of you who want to adopt some of the documents, checklist, and listing agreement language, I provided them in MS Word format.

I welcome any of your thoughts or comments.

Len Krick, MBA, SBA, CMEA

Certified Business Intermediary