Newspaper Story about Metals Research, Pacrim, and A&A
Here is a Vancouver Sun article from the 12/27/1997 business section:
(headline)
Be on the lookout for wheeling dealers: Giovanni Camporese makes a partnership with brothers Robert and Anthony Papalia, all of whom have had VSE securities violations.
It's a marriage made on Howe Street, if not in heaven.
Giovanni Camporese and twin brothers Robert and Anthony Papalia, all of whom have had run-ins with securities regulators, have become partners.
Camporese's public company, A&A International Industries Inc. (formerly A&A Foods Ltd.), has swapped shares with the Papalias' public company, Metals Research Corp. Robert Papalia, who serves as president of Metals Research, has also joined A&A's board of directors.
Both companies are listed on the Nasdaq bulletin board, a loosely-regulated, over-the-counter exchange in the United States.
A&A, whose main business has been cheese processing, is now soliciting investors for a gold trading program based on anticipated production from mineral claims on Texada Island and in Guyana. As president of A&A Foods, a Port Coquitlam cheese processing company, Camporese spent hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting the company's stock, enabling him to dump his shares at handsome profits. (He once boasted that he made more money on the stock than on the cheese).
He also issued a series of bombastic news releases.
In December 1990, he told shareholders that A&A ''has been notified by His Honor, Prince Leonard, Sovereign of the Hutt River Province, that qualified shareholders of the company can apply for citizenship and passport of the principality.''
And in November 1991, he announced that ''Prince Datu Abdullah Alam Atalad of the Brunei royal family and successor of Sultan Barrudin of North Borneo'' had asked to visit company's cheese processing plant.
But the company continued to lose money, and the list of dissatisfied creditors began to mount. In November 1996, the company lost a lawsuit filed by Plumrose Inc. of Copenhagen for non-payment of $742,500 for cheese products.
A&A claimed the cheese was ''soft, sticky, runny, mouldy, swelling, filthy and contaminated,'' a description that British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Meredith dismissed as ''bordering on the absurd.''
The judge also dismissed a $4.5-million countersuit filed by A&A Foods. ''I hesitate to dignify the counterclaim by any detailed examination.''
In January this year, VSE officials halted trading in A&A shares after learning the company had been convicted in Coquitlam provincial court of violating the Food and Drug Act by mislabelling cheese products.
The company and Camporese were also convicted under the Canada Agricultural Products Act of possessing unlabelled cheese products.
VSE officials, exasperated with Camporese's antics, put trading on ice. Finally, in March, the company delisted in favor of Nasdaq.
The Papalias' history has been even more controversial.
In 1977, they were arrested by Scotland Yard in an alleged plot to defraud investors through Metals Research, which claimed to have a gold mine in B.C. Despite intense media coverage and lengthy court proceedings, they were eventually acquitted of all charges.
Meanwhile, Anthony Papalia had been charged in Vancouver with defrauding Continental Securities of $51,000. He was convicted in 1982 and sentenced to two years less a day, but the appeal court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. Crown counsel decided not to pursue the matter.
By 1986, the Papalias had taken control of VSE-listed American Westwater Technology Group and the stock rose to a high of $9.75 on the basis of its proposed acquisition of some medical technology and an interest in a car distributorship.
The RCMP started an investigation and alleged in search warrant documents that the Papalias had been manipulating the company's stock price. In December 1988, the RCMP recommended charges against the twins, but only one charge of issuing a false prospectus was laid against Robert, and that charge was later dropped.
In late 1990, the Papalias joined the board of Rhyolite Resources, a VSE-listed company that was promoting some gold properties on Texada island. They helped refinance the company but VSE officials refused to reinstate it for trading due to their checkered history.
A&A is now using the Texada Island claims as one of two prospective sources of gold for its gold trading program.
In an Oct. 3 letter, Camporese advises a Montreal businessman that A&A requires $1 million to complete construction of a mill on Texada Island capable of processing 250 tons of ore a day.
''Gold extraction will start within 60 to 120 days. We could deliver the first 400 ounces for payment of this program in 150 to 180 days,'' the letter states.
''We agree on a 30-per-cent discount on the first 400 ounces based on 99.9 per cent purity. We can produce 3,000 ounces per month on a special contract with your company based on 99.9 per cent purity.''
The letter also says that it can supply up to 8,000 ounces a month from mineral leases in Guyana. It adds: ''We can increase supplies of gold very rapidly, but we need to establish a program with your company. If you need large quantities of gold, we control an ore body with over 200 million tons of proven/platinum/other metals,'' the letter explained.
Attached to this solicitation is a release from Pac Rim Information Systems Inc., a private B.C. company which shares the same West Vancouver address as Metals Research, projecting production of 2,625 ounces a month from the Texada Island claims.
Neither Camporese nor the Papalias were anxious to talk about their new alliance. The Papalias haven't responded to several phone messages. Camporese, reached just before Christmas, said only: ''Have a nice day, bye.''
END OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLE |
