businesses.

In a series of articles so far this week, the daily newspaper has highlighted investors unhappiness with them.

Two new cases highlighted involve plastics manufacturing firm Waterman Industries, of New Hampshire, and Bell Petroleum Services, of Texas.

Waterman went out of business just five months after Dr. Gilbert Beinhocker and Mr. Gregory Plunkett bought the then profitable firm from Mr. Ted Waterman.

Former Waterman staff accuse the Americans of siphoning the company's assets -- an allegation repeated by those in other firms.

Mr. Waterman is quoted as saying that half-a-dozen "extraneous'' employees were almost immediately added to the payroll, ballooning overheads by $200,000.

They then sold the plant's equipment to a competitor even though it was security on a Promissory Note owned by Mr. Waterman, said the Herald.

Mr. Waterman won a court action but recovered only a small portion of what he claims to have been owed, said the Herald.

Bell Petroleum Services, a bankrupt competitor, was acquired by Dr. Beinhocker and Mr. Plunkett's Regal in 1987.

But Dr. Beinhocker has been accused of grossly underestimating the company's liability to a pollution lawsuit brought by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Some say that all Regal bought, in effect, was a costly lawsuit which they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending and then settled for $1 million.

Over the last week, it has been revealed that Dr. Beinhocker and Mr. Plunkett, who have been involved in an astonishing number of legal battles, have a number of unpaid legal bills.

Manhattan law firm O'Sullivan, Graev and Karabell have won a court judgment for $177,000.

Mr. Plunkett appeared in a US District Court in Boston on Wednesday to try to cut a deal to reduce the bill. Ms Kara L. Thornton, a lawyer representing the New York firm, said she wanted to take statements from the financiers to discover where their assets are, according to a report in the Herald.

"They've made numerous promises and they haven't performed. They have serious debts. We'd like to settle it but the $11,000 (initial payment) is too small,'' the newspaper quoted her as saying.