C3D lawyer refuses to discuss Rene Hamouth
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Friday Jan 7 2000 Street Wire
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CONTROVERSIAL HOWE STREET TROIKA HELP PUSH STOCK TO $98 (U.S.)
by Brent Mudry
Highflying C3D Inc., which features controversial Vancouver stock promoter
Phil Garratt, well known to Canadian securities regulators for his
Cycomm/Sonatel career of ropeless, floatless, self-propelled crab traps and
assorted non-existent but highly promoted electronic gadgets, has finally
revealed the identity of its other key stock promoter. He is Rene Hamouth,
an equally controversial promoter on Howe Street, the centre of dealings for
the former Vancouver Stock Exchange, the exchange formerly known as the Scam
Capital of the World.
VSE graduate Mr. Hamouth has made an impressive comeback since last June,
when the United States Securities and Exchange Commission abruptly halted
Net Command Tech, another former highflying former shell launched in
Florida. The SEC finally moved in to halt Net Command, formerly known as
Corsaire Snowboard at $15 (U.S.), after it peaked at $30 (U.S.), freezing
$210-million (U.S.) in market capitalization.
Mr. Hamouth, like Mr. Garratt of crab trap renown, had an odd fondness for
crabs, as a Mexican crab plant was once Corsaire's prime asset, but the SEC
was more concerned about his Net Command partner Roger Dunavant, the former
peddler of horse shampoo and purveyor of Internet pornography.
The current promotion of C3D, so soon after the Net Command fiasco, has
greatly enhanced Mr. Hamouth's reputation as a Howe Street legend. While Mr.
Hamouth's penny-stock activities have been closely watched by Canadian
regulators for over a decade, C3D is by far his biggest success story so
far. The stock has soared to a peak of $97.87 (U.S.) on Dec. 30, before
slipping back to close at $61.87 (U.S.) on Friday.
Mr. Hamouth, of course, must share the credit with Mr. Garratt, as the stock
has risen more than five-fold from $18.69 (U.S.) since Nov. 3, when
Stockwatch revealed the expatriate Australian and his Cycomm sidekick Clair
Calvert, a former Vancouver broker, as C3D's key stock engineers and initial
promoters.
Mr. Garratt's group of offshore associates bought 3.12 million shares at
12.5 U.S. cents last spring, which represents the company's entire
free-trading float. With such a tight offering in such friendly hands, the
march to $98 (U.S.) has been astoundingly profitable. It is not known how
many of these shares Mr. Garratt's group still holds, but the original
$250,000 (U.S.) stake reached a peak paper value of over $300-million
(U.S.).
Mr. Hamouth's promotion of C3D has been an open secret on Howe Street,
although it is not known how closely the British Columbia Securities
Commission, a few blocks away, is following the stock. The company finally
confirmed Mr. Hamouth's involvement on Dec. 27, buried in a 113-page filing
with the SEC.
Amongst other things, the filing noted that C3D recently agreed to issue
$16-million (U.S.) in convertible debentures to Winnburn Advisory, based in
the secretive offshore haven of Nevis in the West Indies. In the Dec. 24
agreement, Mr. Hamouth served as signatory for Winnburn.
Although Mr. Hamouth is based in Vancouver, C3D is based in New York and
Winnburn is based in the Caribbean, the offshore company used a Swiss
address care of David Craven, using post office box 691 at the Geneva
airport. Years earlier, another much-more-famous Geneva postbox was a
favourite mail drop for the backers of Mr. Garratt's Cycomm.
This other drop, post office box 423 at the Geneva airport, was used both in
the Cycomm promotion and Asil Nadir's disastrous Polly Peck International,
the subject of a major investigation by Britain's Serious Fraud Office.
Polly Peck shares were sold through a number of Swiss letterbox companies
established with the help of Michael Laidlaw, the former head of a London
brokerage, and Rhone Finance executive Roger Leopard. In the aftermath of
Polly Peck's collapse, Mr. Nadir fled Britain for the sunnier climes of
Cyprus, which enjoys no extradition treaty. Mr. Laidlaw remains active on
the Canadian Venture Exchange, or CDNX, the successor to the VSE, to this
day.
On Dec. 30, the same day C3D shares peaked at $97.87 (U.S.), the company
disclosed a $1.6-million (U.S.) investment from "Winburn (sic) Advisory,"
described as a private investment group. C3D's president and chief executive
Eugene Levich, the company's lead scientist was apparently quite excited
about the Winnburn deal.
The press release claimed Mr. Levy stated he "was gratified that the
company's technology was beginning to be recognized by the investment
community for its potential future and current value." The upbeat release
made no mention of Mr. Hamouth.
C3D director Michael Goldberg, the company's lawyer and chief spokesman, is
much less enthusiastic in chatting about his Howe Street backer. When a
Stockwatch reporter asked how C3D was doing, Mr. Goldberg confidently
replied "well."
When asked what the position of Mr. Hamouth is with the company, the
normally smooth-talking lawyer abruptly turned gruff and tough. "There are
no more questions for that - nope," said Mr. Goldberg on Friday evening.
The former federal prosecutor, once an intern with the U.S. Attorney's
Office in Washington, quickly hung up on the reporter. "I didn't like that
last article. You are writing for a constituency that I have no interest in
. . . goodbye," stated Mr. Goldberg before pressing an ear-piercing button
on his phone.
In the previous article, a more-talkative Mr. Goldberg praised controversial
Howe Street promoters Mr. Garratt and Mr. Calvert, and stressed that C3D was
a real company. "It is unfair for anyone who thinks this is a bullshit
company, excuse my French," stated the
prosecutor-turned-penny-stock-spokesman.
(c) Copyright 2002 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
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