2 year anniversary Its now been over 2 years since Leung claimed he was going to vigorously protect the handwriting patent.
"The Company will vigorously protect its stylus based handwriting recognition Utility Patent to exclude anyone from infringing or misusing the Utility Patent without first obtaining a proper license and permission from Empower."
Since Leung made this dubious claim he has gone from claiming Empower would "vigorously protect" the patent to claiming lawyers were "continuing to investigate"......
"Empower US is continuing to investigate with legal professionals in Canada and the US on the best practices"......Paul Leung, MD&A, March 31,2015.
How did Leung go from making such a bold statement to such a weak statement? He is able to get away with making such statements because they are forward looking statements covered by every possible excuse at the bottom of each announcement of this type. Virtually every angle is covered using lawyer speak.
There is no question whatsoever that Leung continues to be demonstrably incompetent. He has been a total financial disaster since he founded this company over 15 years ago in 2000. However, Leung is not so incompetent that he wouldn't have realized just how difficult and expensive it is to enforce a technology patent. We can only speculate what this guy was/is up to. Was Leung attempting to pacify the dozens of angry investors who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars each supporting him? Some of those people lost their homes and their retirements trusting this guy and the criminal stockbroker who lied continuously to his clients.
Or was Leung trying to buy time while he worked on AIC and his fantasy of Empower/AIC becoming an IoT company?
"I run this company!"
That is a verbatim quote from Leung and he is absolutely correct. Leung does run Empower and that's the problem. Leung is the guy who has somehow managed to squander over $34 million dollars over 15+ years to produce a stock that trades at a penny and a company that has a total market cap of $710K.
Ask a competent business person to take a look at Empower and Leung's failures and practices. That person will be shocked.
Its also important to realize that every day that passes Leung owns a larger percentage of the company through the outrageous interest rates on his loans that he charges the company that he bankrupted. Additionally there is his salary and his wife, CFO Amy Chan's salary. Leung would have gained a great deal of respect if he had loaned the money at a nominal interest rate or even current market rates rather than the 10 to 14% compound interest he charges. Leung has taken advantage of the disaster he created.
If Empower were to ever actually succeed Leung will be the one who benefits. The investors own a very small percentage of EPT that is rapidly diminishing.
Leung deletes Empowers History
Leung has now deleted the first 12 years of Empowers history from the website. This deletion coincided with the so called "new beginning."
If you look under "news" you will see EPT's history now begins in January 2012.
Leung has hidden the first 12 years of failure. But why would he do that if the first 12 years of history contain news releases of the "state of the art compendium" of products Leung claims he is going to sell through AIC?
Yes, Leung did create a compendium. Unfortunately its all worthless garbage that he has never been able to sell.
By claiming there is a state of the art compendium Leung is essentially claiming the 10's of millions of dollars of investor money he spent travelling around the world claiming he is a visionary wasn't squandered. This is something I would expect Leung to say. Leung would not want investors to believe he wasted their money and 12 years.
Possible Sandbagging
Is Leung deliberately sandbagging the company? The only other possibility is Leung is extraordinarily incompetent. If you take a look at the year end financial report and go to the top of page 11 you will see that options granted to directors and employees can be converted to shares at a price of no less than the market price on the day they were granted. With the current market price at 1 cent and probably 1/2 cent before too long directors receiving options will be able to exercise them at a price that is barely above free. See below from the 2014 year end financial report.
Stock options
On September 19, 2003, the Company adopted a stock option plan under which it is authorized to grant options to directors and employees to acquire common shares, up to an amount equivalent to 20% of the outstanding common shares. Under the plan, the exercise price of each option may not be less than the market price of the Company’s stock as calculated on the date of grant, less applicable discounts. The options can be granted for a maximum term of five years. Under the stock option plan, options granted to officers, directors are to vest over a period of 3 years, whereas options granted to consultants are to vest over a period of 4 years. The maximum number of shares that may be reserved for issuance is 12,200,000 common shares.
More Dumping
The last few days of trading have seen more dumping at a penny/share. There hasn't been an announcement in nearly 2 years. This is the stock Leung sold to investors for $2.25 per share 10 years ago.
IMO, Leung has failed miserably to live up to the reputation created for him by the criminal stockbroker as a brilliant, fair minded businessman. Leung's claim he is a proven visionary is a bad joke. Where is Leung? Nowhere to be seen or heard from as always.
Whatever way you look at this situation Leung has created a total financial disaster for dozens of people.
The above is my opinion.