Khan's real Business
Lutfer Khan is not an oil man, nor is he a respected business man. His notoriety is well known. His main business is Trivalence Mining (TMI:VSE), a diamond venture in which he owns 17%. Contrast this to his position in Arakis.
Look at how Khan treats his own business if you want some insight. I have included an article from Vancouver below which spells this out. It is apparent to me that Arakis will never attract any more large and serious investors until the company is run by an independent Board of Directors. The type of scams that Khan is involved with gives the APPEARANCE that Arakis is his company from which to launch whatever self serving deals he can get away with. The disposition of his previous stock position and now the personal loans reinforce this idea in the investment community.
For what it is worth, I am extremely long on this company. It is my opinion that the best way to move this stock to $15 is to put some experienced oil people in control of the company - independant board members who are trusted to be interested in shareholder value.
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From the StockWatch Newsletter in Vancouver:
<< June 11, 1997
Lutfer Khan's Trivalence Mining led today's action, down $0.25 at $1.20 on 764,500 shares. The volume was dominated by a cross of 680,700 shares at $1.20 by Peter Brown's Canaccord Capital.
This unfortunately-timed fall comes just one day after the Vancouver Stock Exchange disclosed that the company's May 26 prospectus has been receipted by the BC Securites Commission, clearing 4.7 million special warrants, originally sold at $1.75 each, for resale to the retail public. Even news a few days ago of a 93 per-cent boost in Trivalence's diamond mine output in Guinea, West Africa, was unable to please the market.
-snip-
The prospectus also cleared shares bought earlier and cheaper by Mr. Khan and his Arakis Energy crowd for resale. Trivalence sold 1.1 million units at $1 about a year ago. Each of these units consists of one share and a warrant, exercisable at $1.50 in the first year and $1.75 in the second. The biggest buyer was Lutfer Rahman Khan, with 560,000 units, followed by Dr. Waseem Rahman (210,000), Nadeem Khan (160,000), Dr. Asif Ali Syed (100,000) and hired petroleum geologist John MacLeod (50,000). Controversial Vancouver promoter Terry Alexander bought no shares, nor did any of the suspicious offshore accounts that played key roles in his Arakis and Delgratia Mining promotions.
A quick glance at Trivalence's board shows similar faces to the pre-and-post Terry Alexander incarnations of Arakis. Lutfur Khan currently holds 2.67 million Trivalence shares, a 25.6 per-cent stake before the financing, which was diluted to 17.4 per-cent. Waseem Rahman holds 1.22 million shares, an 11 per-cent stake that fell to 7.9 per-cent. Fellow Trivalence directors Arman Aziz and John McLeod joined Arakis's board in December 1995.
-snip-
Trivalence also sold 1.83 million units at $0.31 in December 1995 to Lutfur Khan's Arakis friends. Each of these units consisted of one share and a warrant. Larnite Corporation PVT, using Mr. Khan, bought 476,000, the same amount as Atta Ur Rahman of Pakistan. Mr. Syed and Waseem Rahman each bought 317,000 units, while Western Enterprises of Pakistan, using Arman Aziz and Zahid Kiani, each bought 243,000 units. Soon after this financing, Trivalence took off. The stock almost tripled to $1.85 in the first quarter of last year,then more than double again to a high of $4 in July. The stock has cooled since, generally trading at just above the $2 level. >> |
