Beautiful certificate from the Big City Bagels, Inc issued in 1997. This historic document was printed by United States Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it. This item has the signatures of the Company's President and Secretary and is over 10 years old. Restaurant News, July 10, 2000 Big City Bagels Inc. was at the center of an alleged securities fraud and money-laundering scheme detailed in a federal indictment of shoe mogul Steve Madden and principals of the Purchase, N.Y.-based brokerage firm Monroe Parker Securities Inc. Madden is a shoe designer and retailer best known for his trendy platform shoes. Federal prosecutors in two different U.S district courts in New York and officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission allege that Madden conspired with two brokerage firms to manipulate the prices of public stock offerings -- among them, Big City Bagels, which was based in Hicksville, N.Y. According to the charges, Madden purchased large blocks of stocks in companies immediately after their initial public offerings by Monroe Parker and then, in a practice known as "flipping," resold the shares back to the brokerage shortly after they began trading. Madden, 42, pled not guilty to all the charges and was released on two separate bonds of $750,000 each. According to Madden's lawyer, Joel Winograd, "Mr. Madden denies any improper conduct, and we will defend him vigorously." The indictments specifically detail a scheme in which Madden lent $200,000 to Big City Bagels as a "bridge loan" in exchange for 100,000 bridge units. It is alleged that at the time of the loan, Madden also agreed to sell the bridge units at times and prices directed by Bryan Herman, a principal of Monroe Parker. Big City Bagels changed its name to VillageWorld.com Inc. and ceased operations as a food retailer after a July 1999 reverse merger with VillageNet Inc. and Intelligent Computer Solutions Inc. The transaction, in which the two private technology companies merged with and acquired control of the publicly traded Big City Bagels, was initiated by the technology firms simply as a means of gaining access to the public marketplace. History from Wikipedia and OldCompanyResearch.com (old stock certificate research service).