One of the things I enjoy is being able to catch up with friends of the past. I recently got word from top agent Jeff Scislow of a mutual acquaintance of ours and what he's been up to. Imagine my shock to find out that friend Vince Siemer, once a successful agent in St. Louis, MO, who retired and moved to New Zealand, had spent six weeks in jail!

This is a story of interest for sure. He has apparently been going after the CEO of a company that he believes corruptly influenced the direction of his business.  Instead of allowing the two to fight it out in the NZ court system witha fair trial and jury involvement, the judicial system of NZ in 2005 decided to order Vince to take down the web site he built which exposed the alleged illegal practices of this CEO. (BTW Vince ended up taking over the whole company and successfully sold that business in December 2005).

Vince did not take the site down.  He was found guilty of contempt of court, and spent 6 weeks in jail. He did a hunger strike, and wrote a book that exposes practices of Eden, the jail in NZ.  The book, titled The ROCK is available at Amazon.com.

VInce got out of jail, but did not take the Web site down.  He says he is expressing his freedom of speech.  The Courts say he is still in contempt  The trial is going on this week.  Vince says it is double jeopardy; they cannot try him again for the same crime (he spent 6 weeks in jail already).  The NZ Court is disagreeing and the fight is ongoing.

Reportedly there have been police raids, and they took his computers, cell phones, files, and vehicles. Vince has decided that since he is in it this far, there is no turning back.  He has said that he is standing for what he believes in.