Complaint Review: CanAm Uranuim ClearPath Resources

Vancouver investor relations specialist Ryan Anthony Gibson has been implicated in a boiler-room stock scheme that could have cost U.K. investors several million dollars but for the quick work of regulators.

According to a complaint filed by the B.C. Securities Commission on Tuesday, Gibson was the sole officer and director of a Delaware-registered company called Rocky Mountain Gold Mining Inc.

Although the company's shares were not registered for sale or listed on any exchange, Ryan arranged for a Panamanian company to sell 3.1 million Rocky Mountain shares to 166 U.K. residents for a total of $2.4 million.

The commission alleged that part of the proceeds were to be sent to a bank account in Vancouver in the name of RMG Mining Inc., a B.C.-registered company owned by Ryan. However, securities regulators intervened and arranged for the funds to be returned to investors.

The commission said the scheme amounted to an illegal distribution of securities, and ordered Ryan to appear before a hearing. A date has not yet been set.

Gibson is a small-time Howe Street stock promoter. He previously served as president and CEO of IR Investments Inc., which provides investor relations services for public companies.

In 2006, he became president of a U.S. junior company called CanAm Uranium Corp., which has uranium prospects bear Bancroft, Ont. It is based in Bellingham, Wash., and trades on the OTC Bulletin Board in the United States.

The company has been a flop. In November, it consolidated its shares on the basis of one new share for 200 old shares, and changed its name to CleanPath Resources Corp. Its future business plans are unclear.

From 2005 to 2006, Gibson served as a director of another U.S. bulletin board company called Vocalscape Networks Inc., which provided voice-over-Internet-protocol ("VoIP") solutions.

One of his co-directors was Lawrence Hartman of Lutz, Fla. This company has also been a flop.

Although it's not mentioned in the commission complaint, Gibson was a bit player in a much larger boiler room scheme that allegedly bilked 15,000 U.K. investors out of $70 million.

The scheme was run by Paul Gunter, 58, and his 25-year-old daughter Zibiah out of Tampa, Fla. They allegedly "hijacked" 54 nearly dead public companies, then sold shares in those companies to U.K. residents through boiler rooms in Spain.

In March, special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested the father-daughter team in Tampa after a joint investigation with the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. attorney's office and City of London police.

According to an affidavit filed by a U.S. Secret Service agent in connection with the arrests, the companies that were flogged through the boiler rooms included Rocky Mountain and Vocalscape.

The agent referred to large amounts of money and shares that were transferred to corporate entities in Costa Rica controlled by an alleged co-conspirator, variously identified as "conspirator 1" and "Larry Hart," a resident of Lutz. This is a thinly veiled reference to Larry Hartman, Gibson's co-director at Vocalscape.

On Monday, B.C. Lions coach Wally Buono announced the club had extended the contract of star receiver Paris Jackson. Behind him was a dark curtain, festooned with the logos of the club and joint-venture partner Aussie Soles Group Ltd.

I had to laugh.

Last spring, the CFL signed a licensing deal which allows Aussie Soles to place the CFL logo on its shoes (Croc-type knock-offs) in exchange for a royalty payment on every pair sold.

The Lions also signed a deal giving Aussie Soles advertising exposure in return for cash payments. (That's why the company logo was being displayed at this week's press conference.)

Several CFL all-stars were also touted as members of the Aussie Soles "team of athletes," including Lions offensive lineman Angus Reid, and receivers Geroy Simon and Jackson.

By the end of June, Aussie Soles shares, which trade on the bulletin board, had climbed to $2.55, giving the company a total stock market value of just under $100 million. I thought public investors were being played for suckers, and said so.

"If Aussie Soles follows the usual bulletin board pattern, it will turn into that familiar Peanuts football story -- the one where Lucy tees up the ball, then pulls it away just as Charlie Brown is about to kick it," I wrote at the time.

It's not clear whether the company has sold any shoes, but it doesn't look like it. The company hasn't filed any statements since May, and is now well past the filing deadline.

On Jan. 19, nearly all the company's officers and directors quit. The sole remaining director, founder Craig Taplin of Kelowna, is nowhere to be found. One of the departing directors, New York lawyer Joel Pensley, told me the company doesn't even have enough money to do an audit. That means delisting is imminent.

At this stage, delisting would be a blessing, like a mercy killing. In December, the stock was consolidated on the basis of one new share for 10 old shares. Even then, the stock is trading at only two cents per share.
The broker's licence of Trevor Scott Morrison, a former stockbroker at Union Securities in downtown Vancouver, has been revoked for life.

The Investment Industry Regulation Association of Canada, which is responsible for disciplining errant brokers, started an investigation into Morrison's conduct in December 2007.

Details of the conduct in question have never been disclosed. The investigation never got anywhere. He refused to talk to investigators and in September 2008, he left Union Securities and has not been employed in the brokerage industry since then.

The association cited him for failing to cooperate with its investigation, but he failed to appear at his hearing on Dec. 22, so the association permanently banned him and ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine and $11,000 in costs.

Although the association has the statutory power to pursue errant brokers after they leave the industry, it cannot legally force them to pay financial penalties, so collection is not likely.

This is not the first time Morrison has been in trouble. In 2004, while working at IPO Capital Corp. in Vancouver, he was found to have illegally distributed securities issued by a bulletin board company. He was suspended for the equivalent of one year and assessed $6,500 in fines and costs.

This is one person the industry won't miss.

dbaines@vancouversun.com

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