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NRI Gupta of infoUSA accused of wasting funds & lawsuit filed by angry shareholders Nebraska, May 27, 2007 According to New York Times report, InfoUSA, which compiles consumer information and sells it to direct marketing companies, sold the names of senior citizens, including millions with Alzheimer’s disease and others it identified as gamblers, with labels that said things such as, “These people are gullible.” InfoUSA Inc. denied it enabled fraud after a story in the New York Times accused the firm of selling personal information to criminal firms that swindled senior citizens. The companies that bought the information plied lonely people with repeated phone calls, tricked them into revealing banking information, and later raided their accounts, the Times reported In January 2002, when Clintons took a family vacation to Acapulco, Mexico, one of their longtime supporters, Gupta, provided his company’s private jet to fly them there. Infousa, one of the nation’s largest brokers of information on consumers, paid USD 146,866 dollars to ferry the Clintons, Gupta and others to Acapulco and back. According to Washington Post on May 26, for the past four years, the Clintons have jetted around on Vinod Gupta's corporate plane, to Switzerland, Hawaii, Jamaica, Mexico -- $900,000 worth of travel. The former president secured a $3.3 million consulting deal with Gupta's technology firm. His presidential library got a six-figure gift- $2,50,000 to his presidential library in Arkansas and donated more than $2,00,000 to the Democratic Party during Hillary’s 2000 Senate campaign. That donation earned him a night at the Lincoln bedroom at the White House the same year. Those expenses are cited in a lawsuit filed late last year in a Delaware court by angry shareholders of infoUSA, who assert that Mr. Gupta wasted the company’s money trying “to ingratiate himself” with his high-profile guests, the report added. In addition to the shareholder accusations, The New York Times reported last Sunday that an investigation by the authorities in IOWA found that Infousa sold consumer data several years ago to telemarketing criminals who used it to steal money from elderly Americans. Aides to Hillary Clinton, The Times said, were at pains to distance her from Infousa, pointing out that she had sponsored legislation that would strengthen privacy rights of consumers. As for the flights on Infousa’s plane, Phil Singer, Hillary Clinton’s spokesman, told the paper that the senator „complied with all the relevant ethics rules” on accepting private air travel. Jay Carson, a spokesman for Clinton, would not elaborate on what the former President does for Infousa, but said that he shared the public concern about misuse of personal information.
Dolphin Limited Partnership I, L.P. and Dolphin Financial Partners,
LLC, which have continued to own 2.0 million shares, or 3.6% of
infoUSA Inc. (Nasdaq: IUSA - News), condemned allegations made today
by Mr. Vinod Gupta, infoUSA's Chairman and CEO, as "categorically
false." "Any shareholder who has listened to an infoUSA earnings call, has read infoUSA's proxy statements since 1998 or any of the Company's documents contained on Dolphin's website, www.iusaccountability.com, or the reports issued by the three leading independent proxy voting advisory services in connection with last year's election knows the truth. "Unlike Mr. Vinod Gupta, Dolphin always provides you with objective, verifiable facts. "These facts include: * Last year over 90% of unaffiliated shareholders voted against
management. * infoUSA's share price is down 12.3%, year-over-year, and has done nothing for ten years. (1) * The Board has done nothing to eliminate the exclusive exemption for Mr. Vinod Gupta from the Company's Stockholder Rights Plan. Both the plan and Mr. Gupta's standstill letter expire on July 21, 2007-after that Mr. Gupta will be free to continue his creeping takeover of the Company. * The Board has failed to recover from Mr. Vinod Gupta and his
affiliates significant shareholder funds spent on personal benefits-use
of an 80 foot yacht, jet planes, personal residences, luxury cars
and use of other now Company owned assets-even after a 2005 report
by Dr. Vasant Raval, chair of the Company's own audit committee
identified charges "We are confident that shareholders know the truth and will continue to see through Mr. Vinod Gupta's deceptions. The Annual Meeting is June 7th. We believe shareholders, to protect their interests, must withhold their votes from the election of infoUSA's nominees and vote against the proposed 2007 Omnibus Incentive Plan which will only help to advance Mr. Vinod Gupta's creeping control." (1) As of April 27, 2007, the trade date immediately preceding
the commencement of Dolphin's withhold campaign for the 2007 annual
meeting of shareholders, infoUSA's one-year shareholder return (inclusive
of dividends) was negative 12.3%. The 10-year compounded annual
return was an anemic 0.7%. See Dolphin's letter to shareholders,
dated April 30, 2007.
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Vinod
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