Tuesday, May 15, 2001 | 10:48 a.m.
The Nevada Attorney General's office is suing three unrelated Las Vegas companies that have been the subjects of complaints over alleged securities sales, the marketing of puppies and sales of debt-reduction services.
In the first case, the state sued Nash Financial Management in an effort to force the Las Vegas firm to comply with a subpoena. The company apparently offered personal financial management services.
The attorney general's office said the subpoena was brought in January by the Securities Division of the Nevada Secretary of State's office. The subpoena demands the production of a wide variety of documents, including client lists, lists of products sold, ledgers and income statements, marketing materials, contracts, licenses and incorporation documents.
Francis Arenas, deputy attorney general with the state's consumer protection division, confirmed that the securities division is conducting an investigation of Nash Financial for possible securities violations, but declined to reveal details as the investigation was on-going.
The lawsuit said an attorney representing Nash Financial contacted the securities division to request more time to comply with the subpoena. However, since this discussion, numerous attempts to contact the attorney by telephone and mail have failed, and Nash has yet to comply with the subpoena, the lawsuit stated.
The attorney general's office is seeking a judicial order that would compel Nash Financial to comply with the subpoena, and a civil fine of $2,500.
Nancy Nash, president of Nash Financial, could not be reached for comment.
Separately, Gianna Orlandi, another deputy attorney general with the state's Consumer Affairs Division, filed a lawsuit for the state to force Richard and Janet Martel doing business as Puppy Empire to comply with a subpoena.
The division, which said it is investigating several consumer complaints that the company sold improperly registered puppies and failed to deliver the registration papers on time, said it sought legal action after the company allegedly repeatedly ignored the subpoena and other warning letters requiring it to provide documents for the state's investigation.
The defendants could not be reached for comment.
And the attorney general's office, on behalf of the Consumer Protection Division, also sued in hopes of gaining an order to suspend the business operations of David Fishman doing business as Arbitronix Inc. after he allegedly failed to comply with an agreement to stop illegally advertising as a credit service organization.
The Consumer Division, which investigated Arbitronix in 1996 on charges of violating the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act, agreed to stop investigating the company after it agreed on Aug. 26 to stop advertising as a credit service organization until it complied with proper license registration and security deposit requirements.
But the state now seeks an order to dissolve the company after it allegedly violated the agreement by allegedly soliciting customers and advertising on the Internet without proper registration and posting a security.
The state said it received information on Aug. 30 from a consumer who claims Arbitronix offered to negotiate a settlement of his credit card bills at a balance lower than he currently owes for a $3,000 fee.
The consumer, who allegedly decided not to do business with Arbitronix, filed a complaint with the state, alleging Arbitronix offered to cut his credit card debt by 50 percent and that he should stop paying his credit card bills and that it would negotiate with his credit card companies until a settlement is reached.
But Fishman today denied the allegations.
"We're not a credit service operation. We are a debt negotiator. A credit service organization impounds and and holds the people's money and disburses that money to creditors on a prorated basis."
"We don't touch anyone's money. We don't do credit repair. We simply act as an agent for the debtor. We simply present a settlement for the client to approve, if the client doesn't approve, then he doesn't owe us anything," he said.
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