Flavor Brands given cease-and-desist order

The Utah Division of Securities said Wednesday that an emergency cease-and-desist order has been entered against Flavor Brands Inc. and its officers for allegedly selling securities that have not been registered, improperly using another company's stock symbol in the electronic service Pink Sheets and misrepresenting the company to investors in proposed stock swap offers.

The state Division of Corporations said Flavor Brands was dissolved in June 1999 after failing to file an annual report, and any outstanding shares of Flavor Brands became invalid.

A new company under the same name was formed in 2005 and declared its intent to to swap old shares of Flavor Brands with newly issued stock in the new Flavor Brands Inc. It also wanted to list its stock in Pink Sheets under the previous company's stock symbol, FLVB.

In June, the securities division learned that the company was trying to list itself under the defunct stock symbol and directed the new company to delist information about FLVB in the Pink Sheets within 20 days and to stop representing itself as the original company.

The new company, based in Las Vegas, did not delist and continues to misrepresent itself in the Pink Sheets, the division said.

The company and its officers are to appear at a Sept. 25 hearing at the securities division office. The order seeks to have them each pay the division $50,000 in fines for alleged violations of the Utah Securities Act.

The officers are J.D. Pulver, president and a resident of Florida; Tim Haskins, vice president, secretary and treasurer and a resident of Nevada; and Denise Sullivan, former president and a resident of Nevada.