Who Is James Dicks?

This is a sidebar to this week's feature, "Wize Guys"

You can't help but feel bad for James Dicks, who Marc Sparks and George Thompson decided would be the "founder" of 4X Made Easy.

When he was deposed for a lawsuit filed against him and GlobalTec in 2004, Dicks had great difficulty answering questions about his work history. He also didn't know if he held active securities licenses.

According to information on his Web sites, Dicks's "last project for a client grossed over $30 million" and he has "created, built and driven super-successful and award-winning national marketing campaigns since 1989."

None of his job history registered with the National Association of Securities Dealers reflects those claims. Nor does his own deposition.

He described his job at Dynetech: "When I left Dynetech, I was a sales trainer...didn't really do anything...It was just a job created for me to -- for nothing. I mean, to help me out. I really didn't do anything. It was a hypothetical position." He says he didn't know who hired him at Dynetech, nor did he know his boss's title.

In the case of DIX Media, Dicks said he was president, but did not know if he was also an owner. Nor did he know if there were any employees aside from him and his uncle. He didn't know how long he worked there or what his next job was.

In his professional bio, Dicks says he is "proud to have served in the United States Marine Corps."

But in his deposition, he couldn't remember how long he was in the Marines, describing his time there as a "bureaucratic nightmare."

Dicks admitted to being a defendant in fraud cases, but he did not know how many.