Cortes Wesley Randell

Who is Cortes Wesley Randell?

Cortes Wesley Randell, born in Washington DC, graduated from the University of Virginia with an engineering degree.

In 1968 Randell took his company, the National Student Marketing Corporation, public. The corporation catered for the youth market and was touted by various Wall Street professionals. Through publicity from acquisitions and as a result of Randell's declaration that NSMC's profits would rise from 11 cents to $2 a share, the stock rose from its Initial Public Offering price of $6 a share to over $120 during the late 1960s bull market. However instead of making a profit, the company had a loss of $859,889 during the first quarter of 1970. The official explanation was that 'mechanical errors' while changing the accounting system had led to $4 million in sales being overlooked.

The stock crashed and as the result of an investigation Randell was charged with misrepresenting the company's earnings. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for, inter-alia, stock fraud. Investors sued Randell in civil court and were awarded $35 million.

In 1979 a federal jury convicted Randell of mail and stock fraud for his involvement with the National Commercial Credit Corp and he was sentenced to seven years in prison, released in 1984. He then was involved in the Federal News Service which is a privately held company based in Washington, DC with bureaus in Moscow and Jerusalem, providing timely verbatim English-language transcription of U.S., Russian and Middle East government press briefings, speeches, and conferences.