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The allegations, which do not involve Crosswalk.com, are related to a dispute with a former business competitor who was involved in purchasing Mr. Fehrenbacher's successful former business, but which apparently suffered losses since it's sale in 1998. … These allegations involved a business deal whereby Mr. Fehrenbacher sold his values-based software program, which rated mutual funds based on their support for socially responsible stocks and other investments. Unfortunately, the individuals who purchased the business have been unsuccessful in maintaining profitability and marketing this database research program, and apparently now are trying to blame Mr. Fehrenbacher for such failures.

That's all Weblog has seen so far about the charges, but here's a little background. Fehrenbacher's "successful former business" was the Institute for American Values Investing. But actually it was Crosswalk that purchased "the brand name and proprietary investment screens" of that Redmond, Washington-based company. What Crosswalk didn't buy, apparently, was his eValueator program, which Fehrenbacher sold to Arthur Ally's Timothy Plan, another values-based investing company (based in Winter Park, Orange County, Florida—birthplace of Crown Financial Ministries' Larry Burkett). The software, then as now, sells for $400. But if you'd like to see essentially what it does, take a look at Fehrenbacher's Investigator, which he put together at Crosswalk. Like eValueator, it checks mutual funds, companies, and portfolios for involvement in pornography, abortion, tobacco, gambling, and other ills. But unlike eValueator, Investigator is free. Weblog has absolutely no idea if the criminal charges have anything to do with the similarities between eValueator and Investigator, but offering a free product that does the same thing as a $400 product may have something to do with the latter being "unsuccessful in maintaining profitability and marketing this database research program." More on this case later, to be sure.

But as if having your CEO arrested wasn't bad enough, Crosswalk got another bit of bad news this week: Nasdaq kicked the company's listing off the National Market and booting it down to the Nasdaq SmallCap Market. In baseball terms, it's been back to the minor leagues. (Entrepreneur.com has a very nice explanation of the difference between the National Market, the Small Cap Market, Bulletin Board stocks, etc.) In a press release, Crosswalk says it "does not feel that it is the best interest of the shareholders to take on considerable dilution that would be necessary for the sole purpose of maintaining [a National Market] listing."

It's not all bad news for the dot-com, however. Crosswalk was chosen as the primary advertising vehicle for the NBC sitcom Kristin? Apparently the reason critics said the show looked like a Christian sitcom was because it was supposed to. The star, singer Kristin Chenoweth, is a Christian herself, but she tells Beliefnet "the show's more about morality. I wanted to portray a person who is a Christian but who has real dilemmas just like any single young woman." That's nice, but apparently Paramount TV is thinking that its best bet is to market the show to Christians—particularly the Christians who visit Crosswalk's entertainment page.

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June (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45