More financing soon ?????
Medinah's Price hits the beach as he ponders his fate
Medinah Minerals Inc U:MDMN
Shares issued 249,475,716 Feb
13 close $0.005
Fri 14 Feb 2003
Street Wire
Also (U:*SEC)
by Brent Mudry
With a Miami judge's blessing, veteran Vancouver stock promoter Les Price,
the head of legal affairs for Medinah Minerals, is off to Hawaii for a
two-week vacation with his extended family as he mulls his fate since his
arrest last August in the Bermuda Short bribed fund manager sting. That
fate includes at least one significant setback, the pre-Christmas guilty
plea of his sole co-accused, Joseph R. (Joe) Huard, a founder and officer
of Shamrock Partners, a controversial Pennsylvania brokerage.
Mr. Price, 65, flew to Hawaii Wednesday for a holiday, booked last July,
with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, after recently
winning court approval for expanded travel rights. He is expected to return
on Feb. 26. Magistrate Judge Robert Dube of United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida also granted Mr. Price permission to
travel to Nevada, Utah, California and Texas for "business-related
matters," providing he files a full flight plan with Pretrial Services 48
hours prior.
Meanwhile, Medinah president Russell Godwin challenges the U.S. Department
of Justice's recent allegations that Mr. Price made numerous false
statements and press releases relating to Medinah's flagship Chilean
properties. "They are trying to build a case. They got fuck all. They got
no smoking gun, and they're trying to present that the leopard doesn't
change his spots," Mr. Godwin told Stockwatch. (Mr. Price has a regulatory
history in British Columbia dating back two decades, including a 15-year
B.C. Securities Commission ban set to expire next year.)
Mr. Godwin suggests the U.S. government's star witness on these recent
allegations ought not to be taken seriously. "He is a well known liar,
thief and cheat, and a wingnut of the first order."
Mr. Godwin also suggests Mr. Huard's guilty plea cannot possibly hurt Mr.
Price, as there is "totally no connection" in the combined case against the
pair. "I don't give a rat's ass" about Mr. Huard's guilty plea, Mr. Godwin
told Stockwatch.
Mr. Price had the misfortune of picking a notorious U.S. brokerage when he
tried lining up a $5-million financing for his Medinah Minerals, allegedly
by planning a $1.5-million bribe for an undercover FBI special agent posing
as a dirty mutual fund manager. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) Mr.
Price picked Shamrock Partners of Media, Pa., a house well known to
authorities. (Shamrock also served as one of 13 market makers for Mr.
Price's other promotion, NP Energy.)
Shamrock is best known for its star former broker, Rafi Mohamad Khan, a
close former associate of notorious boiler-room operator Irving Kott, the
prime target of a high-profile, multiyear United States Securities and
Exchange Commission investigation leading right to Howe Street. Mr. Khan
decided to become a star witness for the U.S. Department of Justice in the
fall of 1998.
Court-filed documents confirm Mr. Huard pled guilty and agreed to rat on
his associates, presumably including Mr. Price, on Dec. 18. Mr. Huard pled
guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud. The
14-count grand jury indictment also included related counts of wire fraud
and securities fraud, and a single count of money laundering for Mr. Price,
relating to a $9,980 wire from Vancouver to Miami, just under the $10,000
reporting threshold.
"The defendant agrees that the defendant shall co-operate fully with the
United States by:
a. providing truthful and complete information and
testimony, and producing documents, records and other
evidence, when called upon by the United States,
whether in interviews, before a grand jury, or at any
trial or other court proceeding,
b. appearing at such grand jury proceedings, hearings,
trials, and other judicial proceedings, and at
meetings, as may be required by the United States, and,
c. if requested by the United States, working in an
undercover role under the supervision of, and in
compliance with, law enforcement officers and agents,"
states the guilty plea agreement.
The plea deal was signed by Thomas McCann, a trial attorney with the U.S.
Department of Justice, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Hong, the lead
prosecutor, defence counsel Kenneth Robinson and Mr. Huard.
Mr. Huard's sentencing is set for Feb. 27, although this may change if his
co-operation is not completed by that date. Mr. Price's trial date is set
for March 24.
Mr. Godwin, meanwhile, is convinced that despite his chequered past for
such things as stock manipulation, Mr. Price has indeed changed his spots.
"Les is a straight up guy," he told told Stockwatch. "He has done
everything absolutely as straight as possible."
Medinah officials, including Mr. Price, handled the dubious $5-million
private placement, the bait in the Bermuda Short sting, as a totally
legitimate deal, according to Mr. Godwin. "It was handled by two lawyers,
it was kissed, blessed and due-dillied all to hell," says the Price
associate. "There were no bribes, no kickbacks, no nothing."
Mr. Godwin also suggests that Mr. Price will be fully vindicated once
Medinah's flagship Chilean property pans out. Already, he says that "very
preliminary" results show 700,000 ounces of gold and "gross metal values"
of over $400-million. "We got a real property, a real deal."
Mr. Godwin claims that if the undercover agents in Bermuda Short had really
come through with the bait financing, Medinah could be sitting pretty. "We
might have been doubling, tripling and quadrupling our values," with the
money, he says.
Mr. Godwin is also confident that he and Mr. Price will soon close a
financing in the range of $5-million to $10-million. This time no
undercover FBI and RCMP agents will be involved.
bmudry@stockwatch.com
(c) Copyright 2003 Canjex Publishing Ltd.
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