My wife was contacted by Jakob Wells of Broker Union in NYC about Vidanta (Desarrollo Marina Vallarta S. A. de C. V.) going public very soon. Jakob was aggressive on the phone with her about Vidanta shares she needed to handle before the company goes public. I took over the conversation at that point.
Jakob gave me a phone number (888-997-7118) to Vidanta Corporate HQ and told me to speak to their Finance Department to get a Book Entry Number for our Vidanta shares. He suggested those shares that Vidanta wants to buy back from us before they go public are worth a lot of money. He said he couldn’t understand why we hadn’t taken action yet. He asked multiple times why we haven’t responded to Vidanta’s offers that were supposedly sent to us via certified mail and via email notifications, none of which we received. He asked if we could prove that we were never notified because he said he could make a case to Vidanta to cash out for us despite Vidanta’s nearly expired buy back deadline.
Jakob insisted we need to act quickly because of the nearly expired buy back timeline. I told him several times we weren’t aware of owning any shares in Vidanta. Nevertheless, I said I would call the number he provided to ask for the Book Entry Number. Jakob gave me his email address to send the number to (
contact@union-broker.com) (he assured me it is his email address despite not having his name in the address) and his personal work phone number (914-223-7556). I called him back at that number shortly after we ended our conversation. It’s actually answered by a “receptionist” who routes the call to Jakob. During that second conversation, I asked Jakob what Broker Union gets out of helping us. He said, “well, of course, a commission,” and then he said until we know for sure that Vidanta will buy back our shares that any discussion of commission at this time is moot.
I called to number provided by Jakob. I was passed to the Vidanta Finance Department. They confirmed that Vidanta has an active buy back program and that they had tried to contact us at our old home address but hadn’t yet heard back from us. I asked how many shares we own and the current value of each share. I was told that they (that department) has no way of determining the number of shares we own but that this can be determined by our broker using the Book Entry Number associated with our shares. I was given this number and told that it represents the total of all shares across however many contracts we have with Vidanta. I was told the current value of each share is $635.25 per share. I was also told the buy back program ends on Aug 22. Additionally, I was told that Broker Union is a recognized company in NYC. Finally, I was told that certificates for our shares would be sent immediately via certified mail to our current home address, and that it typically takes 5-8 business days to arrive.
I did send the Book Entry Number to Jakob at the email address he provided. I haven’t yet heard back from him.
Frankly, this smells like the latest scam to come our way since we bought into Vidanta. Clearly, that company isn’t doing a particularly good job of protecting our information. Jakob knew a bit too much about our purchase, though in discussion it became clear his information was out of date. I would say there were many red flags popping up throughout my conversations with him. I called the number he provided out of curiosity, and sent the Book Entry Number to the email address he provided to see what happens next. Doing so strikes me as circular activity so far, giving them nothing they don’t already have.
Subsequent to this exchange with Jakob and the folks at the Vidanta number he provided, I researched online about Vidanta going public. As far as I can determine, it isn’t happening.