Denver Post - this morning:
Judge vindicates exec accused of
hyping gold mine
By Greg Griffin
Denver Post Business Writer
Feb. 19 - Mining executive Terry Turner settled his score with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday as a federal
judge in Denver ruled that he did not falsely hype his company's
Bolivian gold deposits.
U.S. District Court Judge Zita Weinshienk said the SEC failed to
prove its charge that Turner, president of Golden Eagle
International Inc., knowingly made false statements about the
deposits in a May 1998 news release.
"The court is persuaded at this time that there will not be problems
in the future,"
Weinshienk said in ruling against the SEC, which sought a $50,000
fine from Turner and an injunction to prevent him from violating
securities laws in the future. Weinshienk called the decision a
"close case." Turner, who hugged his lawyers and family members
after the ruling, said the decision would allow his company, which
moved from Denver to Salt Lake City in October, to resume mining
operations on the Cangalli property in western Bolivia.
"We wanted the facts to be aired and once they were, we hoped
there would be a fair decision," Turner said. "With this cloud taken
off, Golden Eagle can go forward with confidence and mine gold at
a very large scale."
SEC attorney Robert Fusfeld had no comment.
The release in question was based on an independent geologist's
finding that Golden Eagle's mining rights in western Bolivia had a
proven reserve of 6.4 million ounces and "inferred resources" of 157
million ounces. In the release, Turner described the reserves as
"world class." The news caused a run-up on Golden Eagle's stock,
which trades over the counter.
The SEC, which two weeks earlier had filed a complaint against the
company for "false and misleading" statements about its U.S.
mining operations in 1994 and 1995, began an investigation into
the 1998 release.
After interviewing the geologist, the SEC halted trading on Golden
Eagle's stock for two weeks, then sued Turner and the company.
The SEC and Golden Eagle settled the earlier charges, which did
not include Turner, and the company and several other executives
reached settlements regarding the Bolivia release. But Turner did
not reach a settlement with the SEC.
In its case against Golden Eagle, Fusfeld argued that Turner had
not read the geologist's report, written in Spanish, before sending
out the release. But Turner's lawyers, John Schlie and Mary
Corporon, said Turner is fluent in Spanish and did read the report.
Turner testified that he released the report's findings after parts of
it showed up on the Internet.
Weinshienk didn't buy that justification.
"The president has no duty to respond to postings in chat rooms,"
she said. "I recommend that he not be so concerned with
chat-room comments in the future." |
