The Shmata Business Informative, Innovative & Truthful                                         Go to next page
By Joshua Tanembaum (joshuatanembaum@hotmail.com)

Those who made it in the news.

China: The recently concluded trip to China of Team Canada headed by Prime Minister Jean Chretien, reportedly signed deals totaling about $6.5 billion…. that’s the good news,….well,…. the bad news is…. who are financing these deals? Who else but the Canadian tax payers? The deals that were signed in 1994 are still controversial up to this time. Who ever said China ever honours business deals? Check it out from those who went there. The government must have the statistics that shows how many of our businessmen were shanghai(ed) by China.

Anyone interested inquiring on how to be protected when doing business in China can send their inquiries to publisher@montrealtriube.com, attention “The Traders Point”.

Has anyone seen my friend Ben Sherman? Sometime a year and half ago, I was told that he hit the jackpot when the penny shares (for a publicly traded company) be bought multiplied by 1,000 times which made him tremendously wealthy. Congratulations!!!

A tribute to a good friend. My friend Douglas Shapiro shown here with girlfriend Dianne at a fashion show at Ritz Carlton Hotel died of cancer on April 23, last year. I visited Douglas a week before he passed away at Montreal General Hospital. Douglas had been a friend since the first time I met him 1985.

Bob Shapiro of C&G Lingerie, one of the pioneers in the ladies sleepwear also died on January 17, 2000, He was one of the most respected men the shmata trade.

I heard Alvin got a new girlfriend since separated or divorced from Leanor… is this true? If it is... “that’s” very fast?…Until now Laura his secretary didn’t return my call to confirm whether the report that Alvin bought Weston Apparel Manufacturing, a Toronto based men’s wear company from Grafton Frazer went through. The good news about Peerless is that Joel is back to manage the company to .. what? Bankruptcy?.. no!!!…This time someone say’s “ it could be better”. Of course…..

George Goldberger, formerly working as division head for Almo Dante, a sportswear import company headed by brothers Irwin and Steve Tauben, was involved with someone named Johnny (Mavitizis) Stamatios in a scheme that bilked the federal government under the ministerial offices of Liberal Human Resources Minister Pierre S. Pettigrew of some $165,984 grant.

Speaking of Almo Dante Sportswear, the two brothers (Steve & Irwin) are still around. Call Steve, they need new suppliers I was told.

Lawyer Alan Guttman, well known in the shmata trade was at last vindicated when the Supreme Court of Canada upheld his acquittal on drug charges brought by the Surete du Quebec after a seven-month investigation, where the authorities did not follow legal procedures for wire tapping and tape recordings in the spring of 1995, that were used in the proceedings against Guttman, where he was found not guilty, subsequently appealed by the prosecutors to the Supreme Court.

The good old days at Ballin Men’s Sportswear that’s to be remembered.

From left Claude Blanchette, Steven Banks, Marissa Sabatino, Veronique Bashpelivan, Robert Wiseman, Mia Serrano, and Anthony Russo

Where are they now? Blanchette, Banks, and Wiseman are still selling, Marissa resigned due to conflict with Veronique who is still with Ballin, and now director of merchandising, Mia is hibernating, and Anthony finally moved to Barmish Sportswear, brought along years of expertise on American standard cuts and fits techniques since the company entered the US market ten years ago. Cesar Romero is now executive vice president from sales manager. Somebody should send him some red roses for his promotion. Import manager Jacques Lacombe is gone. Where? No one knows.

But the most important about Ballin…is that ...Joseph Ballinsky, who took over management from his father Charles (Mr. B), carried the company’s operation to successfully entered the US market after years of hard work, thus making them the largest trouser producers and exporters in Canada.

Well, finally…. the wise guys from Cohoes Stores got busted. The RCMP in Montreal raided about 20 stores owned by Ron & Ami Kaminski on March 1, for selling knockoff designer goods which were allegedly (mostly) manufactured by the Kaminski brothers through contractors as their Canadian Manufacturers number (CA) were sewn on the labels of the garments confiscated by the authorities. No arrest were made but criminal charges are expected to follow and civil suits will come immediately from the owners of the brand named companies whose labels allegedly were used by the these two wise guys who thought that they can go on forever fooling everyone that they always have good deals in their stores with brand name goods. This shows that business in Montreal is really bad that these once two good brothers did tricks just to stay in business. What else is new? It’s quite known in the shmata trade that this practice is standard. It is also possible that the Kaminskis are telling the truth that they don’t have any knowledge of the scheme. According to some sources when they buy goods they don’t actually check the makers' "ca" numbers, just the brands. This will be the main argument that the brothers are going to tell the authorities that their lawyers should consider when they go to court. Good luck…

I have prepared articles on the new generation of the shmata trade… will leave the old ones already but from to time I will write the good news and the bad news to make my visitors abreast on the garment trade.

By the way does anyone of you remember Moe Schwartz? He used to be the most popular shmata trade customs broker for nearly thirty years. There’s an article written about him by one of his friends named Tony Fernandez which you can find in our writers corner section.

Ely Goldberg, 56 years old, pleaded not guilty on four counts of extortion and another four counts on demanding kickbacks from several suppliers of Wal-Mart Canada.

It was reported that the Montreal resident asked for a jury trial scheduled on August 4, last year, based on the allegation by five shmata men named Ronnie Kornbluth (UFO Jeans & B.U.M. Equipment), David Schnapp (Rebel Jeans), Ellie Kassouf ( S&A Jersey T-Shirt), George Samaan and George Najjar (Junior Active – children garment maker & Les Modes Smart).

Goldberg, although holding office at Wal-Mart building, was working with Globe Link Resources Inc., a merchandise consulting company working independently within the Wal-Mart offices .

Charles Cheung, coordinator at Globe Link said when interviewed that Goldberg left the company sometime between May and June 2000. Cheung was quoted “I can’t believe this” of charges against Goldberg. I did some follow-up on the status of the case which was handled by Quebec provincial prosecutor Marie-Josee Di Lallo.

Murray Pecker, 50 years old, the former vice-president of Wal-Mart Canada Inc., until last April 2000, was charged for taking kickbacks from various garment suppliers. This alleged kickbacks happened between 1996 to April, 1999.

Constable Doug Robinson of the Peel Regional fraud bureau of Ontario said “after he was terminated from his position, we investigated the matter, speaking to various vendors dealing Wal-Mart Canada.

It should be noted that Pecker, moved to Wal-Mart after working as senior merchandiser of Zellers Department Stores, that used to be based in Montreal before taken over by the Bay Stores.

Brothers Arthur and David Blumer committed fraud according to Quebec Superior Court Justice Helene Poulin on a report published on February 2, 2000. The Blumers owned Boutique Cherie Inc. with least 60 stores in the province of Quebec. Were ordered to pay their creditors $500,000 from their own pockets, if not their properties will be seized for auction to cover the amount.

Justice Poulin say’s the Blumers knew exactly what they were doing, their actions were “reprehensible”. In the shmata trade this is nothing, it’s just one of the games most people in the trade play. The wise guys (there’s a lot of them still around) usually thought they will never be caught but in regard to the Blumers, they got into a cul-de-sac. Anyway, the brothers time were up.

Can anyone beat this? Hello!!! Hello!! guys in the Shmata Business: Two individuals were apprehended by the RCMP in Toronto, Canada, when they were reported to be cashing in US treasury bonds worth US$25 Billion (repeat billion), supposedly issued before the 1920s, printed on newly produced special paper for currency use. Can somebody tell me who’s got cash that big? Even, the mighty Sultan of Brunei doesn’t have that cash, well, not even Bill Gates. These two idiots will top the list of the most laughable idiots of the 21st Century in the Guinness Book record. It should be noted that the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, got the top billing of the biggest thief of the 20th Century.

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