FAIRFIELD, Conn., Aug. 15, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Competitive Technologies, Inc. (AMEX:CTT) announced today that it has retained Greenberg Traurig, LLP, an international law firm, to recover funds from Agrofrut E.U. (Agrofrut). The CTT Board of Directors had voted unanimously, five to zero, to cancel the transaction with Agrofrut and to remove Ben Marcovitch from CTT's Board of Directors. CTT is releasing additional information in this press release to allow investors to understand its findings regarding the Board's decisions.
Breen & Associates, an independent investigative firm, developed evidence showing that Mr. Marcovitch and Agrofrut provided the CTT Board of Directors with false and misleading information regarding the Agrofrut transaction. These actions by Mr. Marcovitch and Agrofrut violated the CTT Code of Conduct, and led to the removal of Mr. Marcovitch as a Director and the cancellation of the Agrofrut transaction.
Information developed by Breen and presented to the Board included the fabricated and misleading resume for the Chief Scientist of Agrofrut, Dr. Raoul Aragon Davalos. Dr. Davalos, was later revealed to have been convicted of drug trafficking, and was, in fact, assassinated on February 28, 2007 in a drive-by shooting in Cali, Colombia. Dr. Davalos's assassination, prior to the March 28, 2007 Board meeting where the Agrofrut transaction was discussed, was known to Mr. Marcovitch and to Betty Rios, President and CEO of Agrofrut and Mr. Marcovitch's former spouse, and to other executives of Agrofrut, but was never revealed to CTT by them.
Mr. Marcovitch recently admitted to a CTT outside counsel, and to a CTT shareholder, that he attended Dr. Davalos's funeral. However, in the initial due diligence process Agrofrut provided CTT with Dr. Davalos's resume and employment agreement after Dr. Davalos's assassination without revealing his demise. Additional due diligence has revealed other disturbing facts and information regarding Mr. Marcovitch and others associated with Agrofrut. Further, Mr. Marcovitch and Agrofrut were not able to validate the scalability of the proprietary extraction technology for nutraceutical ingredients as previously represented by Agrofrut and Mr. Marcovitch.
"The Board of Directors of CTT has authorized Greenberg Traurig to fulfill our major objective of recovering our funds of $750,000 from Agrofrut," said John B. Nano, CTT's Chairman, President and CEO. "CTT has also retained Juan Carlos Esquerra, of the Bogota, Colombia-based law firm, Esquerra, Barrera, Arriaga, to handle our affairs in Colombia. Sr. Esquerra is the former Colombian Ambassador to the United States and the former Colombian Minister of Defense."
Mr. Nano added, "We will continue our interest in the growing nutraceutical industry, including the glycemic reduction nutraceutical and green tea polyphenol compounds currently in our portfolio. We are also aggressively marketing our newly acquired pain management technology from Italy and stress reduction technology from Korea, as well as our other technologies, including HB LEDs, bone biomaterial, cholesterol trapping and regeneration, and Lupus diagnostic and monitoring, to drive revenue growth, improve profitability and create shareholder value."
About Competitive Technologies, Inc.
Competitive Technologies, established in 1968, is a full service technology transfer and licensing provider focused on the technology needs of its customers and transforming those requirements into commercially viable solutions. CTT is a global leader in identifying, developing and commercializing innovative technologies in life, electronic, nano, and physical sciences developed by universities, companies and inventors. CTT maximizes the value of intellectual assets for the benefit of its customers, clients and shareholders. Visit CTT's website: www.competitivetech.net
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