Hello everyone:
Sorry to butt in here, but there some things about this whole deal that really seem to stink as far as I am concern. I am not a Starpoint shareholder, but I have been following the story for a while. I am a Vantage shareholder, so I know all too well what it feels like to be Van-screw-vered!
Anyway, the DiamondWorks connection here is really starting to stink.
The last time I heard about a company having their PP held up because the VSE didn't like one of the investors was with KRT (Kensington). It was in connection with their pending China acquision which they had scooped from under the noses of - guess who? DiamondWorks.
I remember reading posts here earlier where the management thought the short selling driving the price down was not for profit, but to facilitate some sort of takeover of the property. Now I hear that the property will probably go to DiamondWorks if this PP doesn't go through and that the VSE refused the PP because they didn't like one investor, even though the same group had financed many,many other VSE companies earlier this year.
The following article will illustrate who DiamondWorks investors are, yet they have never been halted over this to my knowledge.
As I say, THIS THING REALLY STINKS. My heartfelt sympathies to all of you.
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Vancouver mining firm linked to mercenaries
The Montreal Gazette
Vancouver-based mining company DiamondWorks Ltd. has publicly acknowledged that its largest shareholder acts as an intermediary for a group of South African mercenaries nicknamed the "diamond dogs of war."
The connection between Anthony Buckingham, who is DiamondWorks's biggest shareholder and a former British SAS soldier, and Executive Outcomes is spelled out in a prospectus filed with Canadian securities regulators.
Executive Outcomes provides military and security services to diamond-rich African countries.
DiamondWorks, which is listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange, is looking for diamonds in Angola and Sierra Leone, two countries that have employed Executive Outcomes.
In the prospectus, Buckingham is described as providing introductions for Executive Outcomes to governments and advising these governments on their commercial relations with the group, which is described as offering military, security, advisory and logistical services to governments in Africa.
The connection is controversial not just because Executive Outcomes is made up of former soldiers who enforced the apartheid regime in South Africa, but also because of the larger debate on the use of private armies in African trouble spots.
Executive Outcomes has attracted an enormous amount of international interest and reports have suggested there is a corporate link between the mercenaries and Branch Energy, the subsidiary of DiamondWorks looking for gems in Africa.
The DiamondWorks prospectus also reveals that Branch has hired an affiliate of Executive Outcomes to guard its properties in Sierra Leone for $60,000 U.S. a month.
Previously, the connection to mercenaries was hotly denied.
Buckingham dismissed such reports late last year as "complete, absolute rubbish."
Executive Outcomes founder Eeben Barlow, in a written response from Pretoria, said, "The fact of the matter is, however, that I am personally on very friendly terms with the directors of Branch Energy and visa (sic) versa." |
