How a mysterious company tied to ?Titanic? villain landed government coronavirus contracts

He’s now distancing himself from Parkpine and Shabana, noting through a representative that despite marketing appearances together over the past few years, he has never actually invested his own money, been paid as an employee or solicited investments on behalf of Parkpine.That’s a departure from the statements Zane made last year on a publicity blitz alongside Shabana under the Parkpine banner, with stops in Greece, Luxembourg and Egypt.In one video interview, with Cairo Scene, Zane sits at the lavish Four Seasons Hotel Cairo next to Shabana – an Egyptian native – and presents himself as having a more active role in the venture: “What’s exciting and where I think we really differentiate is we’ve placed $25 million across nine companies,” he said.Shabana declined to answer questions for this report in a series of phone calls and messages, at one point saying he is living overseas. “Any company rebranding them or positioning them differently, does so without our knowledge or support.”Philips is the most-awarded federal coronavirus vendor with contracts worth $664 million of the $19 billion spent on emergency supplies and services.More than two dozen attempts to contact Shabana resulted in one brief conversation before he hung up.“I never sold those pills, and they weren’t ever advertised, and Billy (Zane) wasn’t involved in the government deals,” Shabana said. Zane, 54, has appeared in the "Back to the Future" franchise, "Tombstone," "The Phantom" and, more recently, television spots in NBC’s "Community."The Chicago native shared the bill with musicians Common and Jeff Tweedy along with others to raise $1.2 million for coronavirus relief during a telethon in May. Zane replied to queries from USA TODAY through his film representative, who helped pass along a statement as the actor was in the midst of arranging a funeral in Chicago for his father, who died after contracting the coronavirus.The representative, who asked not to be named, said that despite Zane's own past statements about Parkpine, an actual partnership failed to take off.“Mr. Zane was approached to partner with Mr. Shabana and his company, Parkpine Capital, whose portfolio includes Global Ventures Summit. The Coronax pills are no longer advertised on the Instapill website.Parkpine’s most visible presence has been the Global Ventures Summit, with events hosted in Los Angeles; Jakarta, Indonesia; Mexico City; and most recently Luxembourg.The tiny European country played host to an event that almost imploded days before it was scheduled because of Shabana’s disorganization, according to Nasir Zubairi, head of the LHoFT Foundation, which co-organized the summit.“I think the easiest way to say it was it didn’t match the expectations we set,” Zubairi said.One of those expectations: Snoop Dogg.Calvin Broadus, the American rapper-turned-entrepreneur and venture capitalist, was supposed to be among the celebrity investors intended to attract attendees, according to Zubairi.