TRUMPED BY USG
 

MIKE'S LONG TIME INVOLVEMENT IN
PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICES

Prior to the travesties he has endured since the summer of 2017, upon his surprise arrest, Michael E. Watts ("Mike") successfully serviced public companies as a "Public Relations" professional for many years, as explained in cursory fashion in these videos by Kent Watts. For many years Mike participated in two major areas of Public Company service:

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1. Marketing the stock of a publicly traded company. Making sure that the health of the market for a public company's securities is actually one of the very top responsibilities of the board of directors. Most viable and serious public companies have Public Relations Departments that insure accuracy and integrity of the required "Material" disclosures of the company's true and accurate publicly known information. Such is accomplished through filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and through press releases. Assuming all "material" information, good or bad, is timely and properly disclosed to the public is paramount. It is very common that outside Public Relations professionals are hired and contracted to seek potential investors of all kinds and their contracts are very specific to ONLY provide true and accurate publicly know information to such potential investors, with a hope that they may want to invest into the market free trading securities of the company. It is important to understand that "Materiality" is a most important factor regarding disclosures being required or not. 

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2. Equity financings through selling unregistered, "Rule 144" common stock. Real companies with significant assets and potential for growth can raise equity on a private basis, without having to do a timely and costly registration of securities. The stock is purchased typically from accredited high net worth individuals that are rolling the dice on a potential windfall. The investors receive paper stock certificates with restrictive legends that prevent the stock from being deposited into a stock brokerage account and traded electronically. However, after the holding period has expired, typically a legal opinion is obtained from a securities attorney and presented to the company, and the company, according to securities law, will then return the certificate without a restrictive legend which can then be deposited into the Depository Trust Corporation (DTC), and the stock can begin trading electronically. Over the years, Mike was instrumental in raising substantial equity in this very legitimate manner, and frankly made a lot of people a lot of money over the years.