Bishop to PWN Saab?

TTAC reader and marketing consultant John Charles of Stockholm, Sweden, was gracious enough to send us some more info on investor Mark Bishop, the man who would be king of Saab.

Hi, I read your very interesting piece on Mark Bishop and SAAB. However you (unintentionally, I imagine) missed out a few details. I have found out that Bishop was involved as President of the rather shady Quick Loan Funding. It is understandable that Bishop chooses not to mention his time at QLF in his CV.

Quick Loan has been accused of predatory lending, deceptive underwriting and fraud in at least eight lawsuits. In addition, Department of Corporations records show 33 complaints against Quick Loan, most alleging unfair business practices. Most of the lawsuits were settled out of court. And state regulators have never disciplined Quick Loan. The OC Register mentions Mark Bishop being involved in QLF as late as August 2007.

Another position held by Bishop: President at IMPAC (prior to QLF). He left IMPAC just in time; ahead of a class action lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of all purchasers of securities of Impac Mortgage Holdings, Inc. from May 10, 2006, through August 15, 2007. The plaintiff alleged Impac and “certain of its officers and directors” with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

However, when one looks at the people at his new venture ABSIG all the names except Tom Epperson were “officers and directors” at IMPAC. It looks like they are getting together again to do some BIG business. Tom Epperson, by the way, was picked up from Quick Loan Funding. Fact remains: Bishop has always been finding himself in very shady businesses. Bad luck or bad judgement? Only time will tell.

Sweden has a few unpleasant memories of creative take-overs, the most recent being Trustor. British businessman Lord Moyne fronted the purchase of the majority stake in Trustor. Trustor’s own money was illegally used to finance the purchase. Shortly afterwards, it became clear that the company had been subject to a major fraud and that Lord Moyne had not invested a penny.

So far no photo of Mark Bishop has been published in Swedish press. My guess is CEO Mark Bishop is the (bald) guy in the middle of photo of the old IMPAC+QLF friends now re-grouping in ABSIG and maybe heading for SAAB. All we need to hear now: creative car-enthusiast Daniel Sadek of QLF is the new VP in a future Koenigsegg-SAAB.