i am thinking about investing in a privately held company, and i want
to make sure i have all available information about the people
managing the company, including any prior civil or criminal legal
filings or proceedings,  prior business dealings, education etc.
The companies are: GasStar Explorations, ClassicStar Farm
The individuals are: S. David Plummer, John Parrott, Tony Ferguson and
Thom Robinson

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Request for Question Clarification by webadept-ga on 18 Nov 2002 19:12 PST

Hi, 

Most of the information you are asking for here could be obtained by
the Researchers via public information areas, but our Terms of Service
have some limitations on how much "personal" information we can
provide. This may be a factor in getting you an answer. For instance I
was gearing up for your question until I hit the part where you say
"education etc." That's more or less beyond the point we can go.
Especially the "etc" part.

Could you please read our FAQ's and TOS, and perhaps rephrase the
question so that we know what you would expect and how far you want us
to go? This will help us and you in getting your answer. Perhaps
simply letting us know that you have read the TOS and understand the
limitations and accept them in regards to your answer would be enough.

Thank you

webadept-ga

---

Clarification of Question by ellenbergken-ga on 19 Nov 2002 03:15 PST

I read the tos before asking the question originally, and i don't have
any problem with the limitations it places on your ability to answer
it.

Greetings Ellenbergken!  The only problem I can see in conducting this
type of search on the Internet is ascertaining if the public
information I locate on these names turns out to be the same
individuals you seek.  My search strategy is outlined in detail in my
answer so you will be able to see how I searched for the information
you requested.

The first search I undertook was for the Gas Star name.  I searched
the following phrases:
"Gas Star" explorations
"GasStar Explorations"
"Gas Star Explorations"
"Gas Star"
"GasStar" - this produced only results related to space science and
unrelated matters but it produced another variation of the name that I
though might be applicable:  "Gasstar Co. LTD".  That turned out to be
a Tokyo company and, to be thorough, I searched the new variation
adding the terms court, litigation, criminal, fines and lawsuit. 
Nothing pertaining to your question was produced.

On a search for "ClassicStar Farm" I found two results, one being an
article referening David Plummer:
"The two leading buyers at the sale, David Plummer and partners’
ClassicStar and Klaus Jacobs’s Newsells Park Stud, each added a few
horses to their selected session purchases during the open sessions,
pushing their totals to 26 horses for $16,665,000 and 24 for
$15,945,000, respectively. Those figures were more than $11-million
ahead of the third largest buyer, Eaton Sales, agent."
Thoroughbred Times.com - article "Keeneland November sale outstrips
the 2001 edition in both average and total receipts" by John P.
Sparkman
http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/thisweek/weekview.asp 

In the above article is also stated "The question is where all this
money is coming from, since these same commercial breeders did not, in
general, have a great year at yearling sales this year."  I do not
know if that also relates to ClassicStar Farms as it was a general
statement and I suggest you read the entire article.

The other result was an article about a horse named Xtra Heat selling
privately for $1.5 million to ClassicStar Farm.  Mentioned also is
"ClassicStar has 24 horses in training and 57 pregnant broodmares at
its 300-acre farm in Lexington, Ky., Ferguson said. He and his
partners - S. David Plummer, Thom Robinson and John Parrott - are in
the process of upgrading their broodmare band, he said."  The entire
article is located at
http://www.sunspot.net/sports/horseracing/bal-sp.heat06nov06,0,2656176.story?coll=bal-sports-horse
and was published on November 6, 2002.

I then searched "Classic Star Farm" and found only one result, an
article from Keeneland Sales located at
http://www.keeneland.com/livesales/press_releases/detail.asp?PID=1081.
 It mentioned Plummer and Ferguson:
"David Plummer bought a filly by Real Quiet out of multiple stakes
winner Morris Code. Plummer, a Nevada resident and owner of Classic
Star Farm near Versailles, will add the filly to his racing stable,
which numbers 30 runners."

"John Ferguson, representing the Maktoum family’s Godolphin operation,
added a Theatrical (IRE) colt to his list of purchases. With a bid of
$300,000, he acquired the bay colt who is out of the winning Dayjur
mare Rihan and was consigned by K.T. Roden’s Warrendale Sales, as
agent."

This last bit gave me other clues to search when I looked for
information on Ferguson.

Searching ClassicStar Farms (no quotations) produced a two articles
mentioning Plummer, Robinson and Ferguson and "one who prefers to
remain anonymous". They are:

Sister To Fusaichi Pegasus Brings $4 Million 
http://www.keeneland.com/livesales/press_releases/detail.asp?PID=1166

Glenn Sikura's Three Purchases Include $420,000 Broodmare 
http://www.keeneland.com/livesales/press_releases/detail.asp?PID=1169


A search for ClassicStar LLC, another variation of the name, produced
8 results on the Google search page located at
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=ClassicStar+LLC.
 The links mentioned no legal problems.  The article links and titles
that are pertinent are:

Fiji Brings $3.1 Million To Top Strong Keeneland Session 
http://www.keeneland.com/livesales/press_releases/detail.asp?PID=1165

Keeneland Sales ends with increase
http://www.vegasinsider.com/u/wire/stories/0,2863,5886283,00.html

Stallions
http://www.stallions.com.au/NewsStory.asp?ID=4802

Keeneland officials pleased with November sale - Numbers, better than
last year's, inspire optimism
http://www.courier-journal.com/business/news2002/11/15/bu111502s313792.htm

Sister to Fusaichi Pegasus brings $4 million
http://www.sportserver.com/horse_racing/v-archive/story/607768p-4692776c.html

Again, nothing negative found about the company.  


I then searched the names you provided using, with each one, the
variations provided in the sample below plus I added the term "horse"
on some to further screen the information.

On John Parrott, I found a reference stating "Snooker legend and
television personality, John Parrott, one of Discover Racing's
celebrity ambassadors has said, "The Roadshow is a great way of
learning more about racing. The more you know about racing before you
go, the more you will enjoy your day" located at
http://www.equiworld.net/uk/ezine/1101/discoverracing.htm.  I then
searched his name in quotation with the extensions of horse and
snooker and found many results from the Google search page located at
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22John+Parrott%22+horse+snooker


All in all, I found nothing negative about any of the names or the
companies you provided.  If you need clarification before rating my
answer, please request it and I will be happy to continue research in
this area.


SEARCH PHRASE SAMPLES:

These are samples of my search strategy for each name you provided. 
As you saw above, I found more links to David Plummer without thr "S."

"S. David Plummer" produced five pages of results that dealt only with
thoroughbred horse racing, breeding and sales
"S. David Plummer" litigation (no results)
"S. David Plummer" lawsuit (no results)
"S. David Plummer" court (only produced horse-related terms not
associated with a legal court nor litigation)
"S. David Plummer" criminal (only produced results for a thoroughbred
horse auction - the name "Criminal" related to a horse line)
"S. David Plummer" education
"S. David Plummer" biography
"S. David Plummer" resume

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Clarification of Answer by journalist-ga on 23 Nov 2002 13:23 PST

Greetings again, Ellenbergken:

I just noticed your comments (I am only sent an email alert when a
customer posts in the Clarification section) and I apologize for not
finding them until now.

I did locate the web site for a company called "Gastar" and they state
their company HQ is in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.  However, Gastar and
Gastar Explorations may not be the same company so I was hesitant to
declare they were related.  A Paul Ferguson was mentioned in relation
to the company but none of the other surmanes came up in a search
combined with Gasstar Explorations.

However, a new search for "gastar eploration LTD" with the singular
"exploration" and the name Ferguson did turn up a Wall Street report
mentioning Ferguson, Parrott and Robinson as executive officers and
confimed that the Gastar site mentioned above is the one they are
related to.  The Gastar site is located at http://www.gastar.com and
the Wall Street report is located at
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:rzZVWipDxW8C:www.wallstreetreporter.com/newsmag415/index.pdf+%22gastar+exploration+LTD%22+ferguson&hl=en&ie=UTF-8.
 Losses, profits and expenses are mentioned there.

Other search results for the company are available at
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=gastar+exploration+LTD

I, too, discovered private for-fee reports such as 4keith mentioned in
his comment but I assumed you were looking for public information at
no charge so I did not include it.  I have seen various comments by
4keith on this site concerning private investigation so he may be
affiliated with a professional organization of that nature and
certainly you would want to consider that option.  I may have erred
here in not mentioning PI resources but I believed you were familiar
with the area of private investigation (indeed, you may have already
pursued this line of research).

Again, no negative mentions of the companies or the names you
provided.  Should you need clarification before rating my answer,
please use the "Request A Clarification" feature and the system will
alert me by email that I have a clarification from you to address.

i pretty much know everything I need to know about their thoroughbred
related activities combining the information you gave me with what
information i already had. The other activities are more important
especially GasStar which i am told is an australian company engaged in
natural gas exploration and production

additional to the comments i just posted: John Ferguson is another
person in the Thoroughbred business that has nothing to do with Tony
ferguson or any of the other people named.

11-21-2002

DEAR ELLEN:

Here is some more information I thought you might be interested in:

(1) GASTAR

The correct name for the company seems to be GASTAR EXPLORATION and/or
GASTAR PTY, a joint venture between Australia and Canada that is
located in Moorebank, New South Wales Australia.  Go to GOOGLE and do
a search on the term GASTAR or GASTAR PTY or GASTAR EXPLORATION and
you should find many webpages that would give good information.

I would point your attention to pay particular notice to the link that
shows the webpage www.investprivate.com to look at a Press Release
dated approx. Feb. 28 that gives a positive description of the company
and says that a private report on that company can be purchased for
about $10 from www.multex.com and that the stock purchase IS
recommended.

You should ask the individuals from ClassicStar to furnish you with an
annual report of GASTAR that would contain the relevant information
(or contact GASTAR yourself to request one), but if you were also
interested, a business report on GASTAR could be obtained from DUN AND
BRADSTREET (www.dnb.com) for $429.


(2) CLASSICSTAR FARMS LLC

Kentucky business records show it to be a company in good standing
that filed October 3, 2002, and that the principal office is at 1610
GRASSY SPRINGS ROAD, VERSAILLES, KY 40383 (Versailles is in Woodford
County), but that the registered agent and company "organizer" is
BERNARD F. LOVELY, an attorney, whose business address is 155 E. MAIN
ST., SUITE 300, LEXINGTON, KY 40507.  Tony Ferguson is Manager of
CLASSICSTAR LLC, similar or same company with different exact name, so
when doing searches for information you need to look under both
categories of names.  To check court records at WOODFORD COUNTY, get
information at 103 S. Main St., Versailles, KY 40383, phone
859-873-3421.

You should consider hiring a private investigator in the Lexington, KY
area to do searches in what is called "Lexington-Fayette-Urban County"
to see whatever information would come up as far as civil/legal
transactions they may have been involved in.  To test their honesty,
you should ask them for their home address and phone number and
business address and phone number (just in case you would need to
contact them to ask questions or basically to know how to contact them
in the unlikely event that they ran off with your money!!!), and then
your private investigator could use that information to do the
background checks.

You didn't mention whether you live in the Lexington, KY area or not,
but the investigator or YOU YOURSELF could visit the website
www.kyeb.us.courts.gov to get the address and phone number of the
Eastern District of Kentucky US BANKRUPTCY COURT in Lexington, to
visit the office to search their computer databases free of charge to
see if any bankruptcy records exists, and also contact
LEXINGTON-FAYETTE COUNTY at 859-253-3344 to find out where to go to
check LEXINGTON-FAYETTE COUNTY government records for any
civil/criminal proceedings under certain names.

The Baltimore Sun newspaper mentioned that CLASSICSTAR was a
Utah-based group.  The Utah business records show CLASSICSTAR LLC
owned by FRANK SUITER and does business at 175 S. WEST TEMPLE, SUITE
700, SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84101, and opened in December 11, 2000.  If I
were you I would want to know if this is the headquarters of
CLASSICSTAR.

Also show that TONY FERGUSON is affiliated with CLASSICSTAR located at
500 N. Marketplace, Suite 200, Centerville, UT 84014 (in DAVIS
COUNTY).

(3) QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER ASKING

A.  May I see your monthly income statements for the past 6 months and
a recent bank statement that shows what your outstanding/present cash
balance is?

B.  REFERENCES--May I have the names and phone numbers of 2 other
investors who have been repaid, and checks that show how much they
got?  Do I have your permission to contact them to ask questions about
CLASSICSTAR?

C.  BUSINESS PLAN--How do you intend to use the investors' money?

D.  How and when do you plan to repay me?  (AND GET IT IN WRITING if
you have not already done so).

Test their honesty by asking for their home addresses and business
addresses and phone numbers.  Each of the parties listed has business
connections in a state other than Kentucky, so you need to be able to
know how to contact each party at their home or business address.

What is the amount of your investment?  Please don't put in more than
you could afford to comfortably risk (assume that in a worst case
scenario you could lose everything), but surely it looks like you are
going to get a great return!!

On paper, and through the Internet listings, it looks like they have a
great track record of financial success--any time you can buy and sell
exceptional breeding horses or any other asset and get millions of
dollars for doing it, obviously, that's a great benefit.  Hopefully,
there won't be overwhelming expenses that eat up most of the income,
and hopefully, there will be significant profits to distribute to all
investors.

My apologies for mentioning the pointask.com website--I had no way of
knowing that they were inactive for about a week or so while they are
doing a service upgrade, but if you wish to post a query on their
Business message board in the future, I did have additional tips on
how you could search for business information.  Good Luck To You! 
Congratulations on being smart enough to do your research BEFORE you
make the investment.

SINCERELY,
4keith-ga

My name is Travis Cable. I am a good friend of the Plummer family and
just happened to come across this when searching for the website for
Classic Star.

I can say that they are people of great integrity and could surely be
trusted with investment money.