An article in a US newsletter on a company listed locally has raised the ire of its founder and attracted the interest of the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX).

NimsTec Ltd., which listed on the BSX last month, has come under attack by Miami-based Offshore Alert, with the newsletter calling into question the company's credentials.

BSX chief operating officer Greg Wojciechowski said the stock exchange was considering the issues raised in the article.

"We are aware of the article and the entire matter is under review,'' he said. "We will take appropriate action if necessary.'' NimsTec founder and chairman Jerry Nims told The Royal Gazette yesterday he had turned the matter over to his attorneys for a possible libel suit by himself against the newsletter and its author David Marchant, a journalist who previously worked in Bermuda.

"They are going to take Mr. Marchant to task for saying things that are not true,'' Mr. Nims said from his offices in Atlanta where the company manufactures and markets 3-D products. Mr. Nims then went through the article point by point, indicating what he said were mis-statements and inaccuracies.

The article claims that NimsTec bears "striking similarities'' to Nimslo, a company founded by Mr. Nims with a partner and "lost investors in the US, the UK and Bermuda tens of millions of dollars over the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s with the same technology now owned by NimsTec''.

Mr. Nims said Nimslo made a "tremendous amount'' of money for all its investors during the 1970s, an average of ten times what they put into the company. That's because Nimslo was sold in 1980 as a profitable, going concern to Norwegian shipping magnate Fred Olsen, whose UK factory was manufacturing the company's 3-D cameras, Mr. Nims said.

He said the company then went public in the UK and share prices fluctuated.

"Some investors lost money, and some made money depending on when they bought shares,'' he said.

While the original Nimslo was in the same 3-D business, NimsTec is significantly different, he said. Mr. Nims, through NimsTec, bought Nimslo's technology, patents and hardware last year from an Olsen-owned company, Bermuda-based Fairhaven International. He also hired three former Nimslo employees for NimsTec.

Other than those relationships, there are "virtually no similarities'' between the two companies, Mr. Nims said, because NimsTec has developed a means of mass producing its technology, which Nimslo was unable to achieve.

"It's quite a dramatic development,'' he said.

The new company has developed a mini-developing machine for the high-speed production of 3-D images. Currently consumers taking photographs with the company's 3-D cameras can only get them developed at NimsTec in Atlanta and at one place in Europe. The machine would now pave the way for consumers to get their developing done locally. The company has also brought the cost of a 3-D camera down to about $30. Nimslo's cameras were sold through direct marketing for an average price of $400.

NimsTec has also developed a method of mass producing its plastic developing material which can be used by companies who want to produce 3-D images on their cards. Currently NimsTec is in negotiations with a telephone company to produce its 3-D debit cards.

The company has also developed a mini-lab which takes 3-D images of the eye for the medical profession, as well as high-speed printers for producing images. It has developed software for producing 3-D computer images which has been used by Sega for images on their electronic games.

Mr. Nims, a former president of The Moral Majority, a "now defunct, right-wing, US political group'' according to the article which also connects him to Praise The Lord, a "televangelist organisation, best known for the sexual indiscretions of the Rev. Jim Bakker''.

Mr. Nims said he was brought into Praise The Lord to fix up the Jim Bakker problem as chairman of its executive committee. After the problem was fixed he stepped down.

"We threw Jim Bakker out,'' he said. "We stepped in and did the cleaning up.'' He said much of the other information Mr. Marchant claims was not revealed to shareholders, such as court actions, are all revealed in two private placement filings in March 13, and June 24 last year. He said Mr. Marchant was referring to a separate document filed with the Bermuda Stock Exchange as part of its listing requirements.

"We are not trading yet,'' he said. "We were not offering shares through that document.'' NimsTec has 18 employees, one based full-time in Bermuda, and 18 million shares outstanding.

MAGAZINE NJ