1999-2010

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

AP finally runs our exclusive Baras lawsuit story

Eight days after Tabloid Baby broke the story, some pisher at the Associated Press has turned in a version-- and doesn't give us or Our Man Elli  any credit.  
Big surprise. 
Schmuck!



For the second time in three days, the AP has picked up a report that appeared exclusively on Tabloid Baby, rewrote it without credit to or mention of the source or backstory, and posted it so it is already being picked up around the world:

BOSTON - The founder of Israel’s financially struggling professional baseball league is being sued by a Florida woman who claims he defrauded her of the $275,000 she had invested in his bagel business, and instead used the money for personal expenses and to support the league.
Natalie Blacher is asking for the return of her investment along with interest and attorney’s fees in the lawsuit against Lawrence Baras, of Brookline, Mass. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Boston in September.
Blacher claims that she bought $275,000 worth of stock in SJR Foods Inc. after she was assured by Baras that the company was financially sound. Baras was the company’s president...

On November 12, we wrote:

The rumoured financial problems and improprieties clouding the future of the Israel Baseball League and its founder exploded to the surface today with the details of a federal lawsuit filed against Boston-based businessman Larry Baras.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts and obtained exclusively by Tabloid Baby, alleges fraud, securities fraud and breach of fiduciary duty on the part of the embattled founder and managing director of Israel's first Major League-style professional baseball league. 
Baras has been in headlines in recent months due to allegations that he owes money to players and vendors involved in the league's first season, and to the frustration of many, has been silent on the question of whether the lBL will return for Season Two. He has yet to address serious questions abut the IBL's management in wake of the disturbing August 28th report on the first season by Our Man Elli In Israel.
In the lawsuit filed September 24th, Natalie Blacher of Dade County, Florida sued Lawrence S. Baras and SJR Foods, Inc., claiming that the founder of the Israel Baseball League duped her out of $275,000 that was supposed to go into a successful bagel company, but instead went to “his personal living expenses or expenses which should be charged to IBL.”
Blacher contends that she spent $275,000 to buy stock in Baras’ SJR Foods on Baras’ word that the company was generating $10 million per year, only to discover that the company was $1,500,000 in debt and that despite his claims, Baras was spending all his time—and possibly stockholders’ money-- on the IBL...
Credit was due, no? Hey, maybe we can ask That Putz Greenberg.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

enough of this israeli baseball thing...

this is hands down the most boring story ever..

please give us something new!!!

Anonymous said...

maybe the AP guys just did a google search for Larry Baras and found that information but it just took them a couple of days to publish it because an editor didnt find the story worthy until now. You think that might be a possibility?

That excuse worked for you, so I'm sure the AP guys could claim the same thing. The first time it actually appeared on your site was through a comment posted by someone (not myself) a day or two before you decided to post it. Stop trying to take credit for this when someone else posted it one your site before you actually said anything about the lawsuit.

Anonymous said...

Who cares that somebody else posted and found the lawsuit. Elli still had the courage to write the story.

Anonymous said...

I just have one question and I really want to know the answer to this...why as everyone starts to pull away from the IBL, why is Dan Duquette still on board, and has anyone tried to contact him for a comment.

Anonymous said...

courage!! are you joking. what he is in lebanon, gaza what the hell are you talking about courage.