Complaint Review: PermaPave - syossett New York

In February 2008, I was presented with an investment opportunity by my brother in law, with Permapave USA, LLC by Vincent Buonauro of West Islip, New York.  I signed a Promissory Note agreeing to be paid interest bimonthly for an initial investment of $25,000; at the end of the year, the $25,000 was to be returned to me.  The investment was to allow for the company to purchase containers of product from its parent company in Australia to be shipped to the USA to complete a purchase order made. A quick note on the company, they create permeable pavers for drainage solutions.

In April 2008, Vinny (Vincent Buonauro) told investors that the Company was going public. He offered me securities in the company, stating I could put in as much money as I wanted and that every dollar put in for the security was equivalent to one share.   He told me that I would be able to sell half my shares up front for a certain amount when the company went public, and then sell the other half for whatever the market rate was 6 months later.  

Consequently, the interest checks stopped for the initial $25,000 I invested, and I gave Vincent another $75,000 to be used towards the securities he had offered me over the phone.  I felt this was a secure investment because I researched Vincent, and the company, and found no issues.  Permapave was featured on a reputable TV show, Extreme Makeover, and I was receiving my interest checks as promised.  In August of 2008, I received receipts of all my funds invested with the company, including the $25,000 in the initial promissory note, and $75,000 for the securities that were offered to me.

In late 2008, we were told the Company was not going public and that Vincent's partner Eric Aronson of Syosset, New York, was now in charge.  We had no prior knowledge of Eric until this time.  Investors were told by Eric that Vincent had offered us illegal rates of interest in our promissory notes and that the company could not go public because it did not have the investment backing that was needed due to the state of the economy.  Eric presented himself to the investors as not being aware of any dealings that Vincent had done while he was part of Permapave. 

Eric presented us with a Convertible Debenture Purchase Agreement (Permeable Solutions) in exchange for the Promissory Notes (Permapave Industries,LLC) that we signed with Vinny. This convertible debenture was to last for 2 years and was supposed to be at a legal rate of interest (which we found out later, was still not).  He then paid us a 1% rate on our money from that point (January 2009) until May 2009.  He has gone delinquent on paying me one month of interest that is owed, June 2009, but the company refuses to pay me, even though I have made several attempts to collect the debt.  I have since found out that the contract should have just been voided out due to the rate of interest involved, and that we should have received our money back.  This was never given to us as an option even though we asked.

On June 12, 2009, Eric Aronson told an investor that the company was sold and it was required that all private investors needed to sign paperwork to finalize the sale.  The interest checks were to stop and we were told that we were going to receive a large amount of money when the company was sold. Although we were a bit hesitant, we were told that there was no other option and that the paperwork needed to be signed immediately for the sale of the company to go through (we found out later this was not true, this form did not need to be signed for the company to be sold). 

 It took about 8 mos. after to finalize the sale of Permapave (although to this day we have no proof that this company has ever been sold).  We have made repeated attempts to get the information of who bought the company and when, only to be told that we don't need the name of the company, etc.   This whole time, we have also requested our signed conversion agreements and it took about 8 mos for us to receive our agreements after repeated attempts to obtain it.  After obtaining the agreement, we realized we were being paid in shares of the company, not dollars, as it was presented to us.  And these shares were to be cut into a fifth.

Finally, in September 2010, we received a letter notifying us that Permeable Solutions was now Verigreen. It stated that they were trading under a publicly traded company with the symbol of IUSN; and Interlink is a media stock (nothing to do with construction or pavers).  The symbol IUSN is currently trading at a range of $.90 to $1.50/share. The letter also stated that the interest in my Convertible Debenture Agreement was improperly calculated thus reducing our shares almost in half (it appears to be at the same rate of interest that was told to us that was illegal).

Now the only option we are presented with is that we have to sign a release form removing all our rights, in order to get the stock.   And then in three weeks, we are supposed to get the stock certificate by a transfer broker in New Jersey.  Even though the stock is only trading at a low value, we are being told that our stock will be bought back at a higher value than what is listed. But, there is no guarantee of this being given in writing.  

As it stands now, with what the stock trades for on an average, I would get maybe  1/3 of my money back that I originally invested.  Also  the stock is not currently trading at the volume need to sell my shares, not even close to it, so I couldn't even sell my volume of shares if I wanted to, unless it was opened up for me to do so.  So, there is no assurances that I will get any money.

  We were told that if investors do not sign the release form, then all we have is a conversion agreement with permeable solutions, not the new stock IUSN.  So, we could possibly try to sell our conversion agreement to someone but if no one chooses to buy it, then we are just left with this agreement and no money. So, three years ago, I put in $100,000 of my money with this company, and am now left with paper, stories, and empty promises.  They won't even pay me the back interest owed to me that they have paid others.   I should also mention that Eric has been convicted of securities fraud in the past, which I did not know and found out about after we signed the conversion agreement.