BTU Ventures, LLC and BTU Ventures, Inc. - what's the difference? nothing and EVERYTHING!

"BTU Ventures" is an interesting animal.  Probably just as interesting as the "BTU Industries" or QGEN or FATE or MW-Partners animals. 

Seemingly minor differences:

• BTU Ventures, Inc.
• BTU Ventures, LLC

Both are Delaware companies.  Yet, only ONE has ever been registered to conduct business in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (BTU Ventures, Inc.).  Wael Al Mazeedi has always represented that "they" were "based" in Massachusetts.  Inescapable fact:  BTU Ventures, LLC was NEVER registered to conduct business in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The "Con has always been On"
"BTU Ventures" purportedly also had an office in Dubai until some time in 2008.  Which BTU Ventures might that be?  The following people went around brandishing business cards that said "BTU Ventures Middle East"

Vikram Airi
One of the contributors to this blog met Vickles in 2005.  Right about the time BTU was "raising money" to pay-off the loan they used to buy Meiya Power: the loan they defaulted on multiple times... He doesn't look any smarter now than he did way back in '05.

Rafik Nayed  
(one of the contributors to this blog learned in 2008 that Mr. Nayed was still "inadvertently" receiving ~ $15K/monthly payments 6 months after he had departed "BTU" - Wael said it was an "oversight")  Also, why is rafeek making that motion which signifies in many cultures that he is ritualistically "shoving his thumb up something"?

[Note: both Vikram as well as Rafik were crucial for Wael Al Mazeedi to pull-off the incredibly profitable sale of Meiya Power Company - profitable for Wael but not for the shareholders, that is.  They were either board members or directors of the various shell companies that Wael used to sell Meiya Power Company from Wael to Wael and then to Standard Chartered Bank and/or affiliates.]

Prior to the formation in Delaware of BTU Ventures, Inc. [and its eventual registration in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to conduct business on February 11, 2003], there were already quite a few people that had been working for "BTU Ventures" in Massachusetts (principally in Burlington).  According to the BTU Power Company offering memorandum (included as an exhibit in the Hayat litigation) the following individuals had already conducted a significant amount of work for "BTU Ventures" as of January 20, 2003.  WTF? 

• Faisal Khan
• Taiseer Abdel-Halim
• Lincoln Y. Rathnam
• Robert De Meyere ("Bob Demeyere"?)
• Timothy Allaire
• Michele Smart
• Omar Ali
• Henry Tiedemann
• Dimitri P. Racklin (partner at WilmerHale - formerly Hale & Dorr)

[Note: Interestingly, the BTU Power Company offering memorandum was conveniently ambiguous regarding "BTU Ventures" since they only identified it as a Delaware company - Kudos Dimitri P. Racklin from WilmerHale for helping Wael Al Mazeedi obfuscate the picture for prospective investors.]

According to the Offering Memorandum "BTU Ventures" had already "...initiated a dialogue and submitted informal expressions of interest to the Sellers..." as early as July 2002.  To be in a position to submit "expressions of interest" you'd imagine that "BTU Ventures" probably put in 4-6 months worth of due diligence and financial modeling and proposal structuring.  This means that "BTU Ventures" was seemingly already doing lots of work in good old Massachusetts sometime in early 2002.  Almost a year before "BTU Ventures" was registered to do business in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts another "BTU Ventures" had significant operations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. WTF?

Shell Games
By naming everything BTU "XYZ" Al Mazeedi has given himself lots of leeway to move a comma "," here a dash "-" there and blur the difference between two completely separate companies and make it appear that they are the same.  We have "stuff" from the Betancourt litigation that reveals, yet again, Wael Al Mazeedi's "modus operandi" (hint:  BTU Industries Holdings USA, Inc. and BTU Industries Holdings (USA) Inc. appear at first glance to the the same company.  They both claim to be registered in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to conduct business in the state.  They have both sued Massachusetts based employees.They are in fact NOT THE SAME.)

"The More Things Change the More they Stay they Same"
Why is all this ancient history being revisited? Most recently, after "BTU Ventures" had seemingly disappeared, Mr. Tibor Toth , Chief Investment Officer for QGEN Ltd. ( a Cayman Islands shell company that exists only on paper in the offices of Simon Firth at Maples & Calder but was nevertheless trying to purchase 300 acres of desert from the City of Victorville in California and made dubious representations to government officials) is now also a Director of  BTU Ventures???

Other Observations

You will see the name of Dimitri P. Racklin (WilmerHale) in other interesting "contexts" with regards to "BTU" in other posts... Also, WilmerHale's offices in Boston will feature prominently given that they "Represented energy-focused private equity firm BTU Power Management Company in a secured $240 million term credit facility from Standard Chartered Bank"... (a Boston-based lawfirm representing a Cayman Islands shell company regarding a transaction with a bank entity based in Hong Kong).... we are still scratching our heads... However, all of "this" is actually tied together by Wael Al Mazeedi...

Curious Fact

One of the contributors to this blog was informed in 2008 by a former employee of "BTU" that Mr. Dimitri P. Racklin, who had formerly been "best buddies" with Wael Al Mazeedi, had a "falling-out" with Wael with regards to the $8million payoff related to Meiya Power Company.  Maybe Dimitri and WilmerHale were willing to go along with Wael's self-enrichment as long as it wasn't too freaking blatant.

PS

Wael's been trying to peddle the manufactured story of his "greatness" in the internet by means of his own "press releases" and his paid, internet bloggers.  He's moved freely back and forth between the the following entities:

• BTU Group
• BTU Industries
• BTU Funds
• QGEN
• FATE
• Hybrid Energy Consortium

The only commonality amongst all these entities is the fact that Wael Al Mazeedi has his fingers wrapped around all of them.  They all claim the same antecedents... How can that be?