A Friday Miscellany

“How did you even find out about me?”

This article by Ronald Campbell in yesterday’s The Orange County Register: “Irvine music festival raises money boiler-room style,” tells an interesting story about the use of lead brokers in soliciting investors. According to this story, when one investor asked why he was called, he received this answer: ”Looks like you – you know, we buy all of our leads from a lead broker. Looks like you had showed some interest in an oil project in the past, for energy, and so we were calling to get you on board here, show you how you could get 2 to 1 on your capital in a quick turnaround.” I’m confident that the promoters of this investment won’t have the same question if they should happen to get a call from either the DOC or the SEC.

“Fill ‘er up with high test”

I like to say that before practicing law, I worked as a petroleum transfer engineer. In reality, I was a service station attendant in a full-service gas station. Back then, we pumped gas, washed the windows and offered to check your oil. We had three pumps – one for premium, one for regular and one for Ethyl. (If you’ve never heard of Ethyl, here’s a 1950's video that explains what it is.) Now in California, full service has almost disappeared and there is only one pump with a single nozzle to dispense all three grades. The reason for single nozzle in California is that service stations must now meet the requirements of the California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board (ARB) and the ARB requires a single nozzle design.