Stock fraud suspects plead no contest
By Gary Rennie, The Windsor Star
September 14, 2010
windsorstar.com
In this file photo, Petar Vucicevich, left, former Sulja Bros. owner walks out of the Provincial Court building Monday with his lawyer Dan Scott. Vucicevich was released on $100,000 bail. He has been charged with two counts of fraud for alleged "stock manipulation."
Photograph by: Dan Janisse, The Windsor Star
TORONTO, Ont. — Petar Vucicevich agreed to plead no contest Monday to multiple violations of the Ontario Securities Act as his month-long hearing over the Sulja Bros. Building Materials Inc. "pump and dump" stock fraud was about to begin.
Without admitting guilt, Vucicevich and Tracey Banumas both entered into settlement discussions Monday with Ontario Securities Commission staff over the alleged multi-million-dollar fraud. Neither was represented by a lawyer.
OSC commissioner Patrick Lesage asked for a summary of facts to be outlined today, which could be used as a basis for deciding which sections of the securities act were breach-ed. A separate hearing would then be held to determine penalties.
Lesage said he wanted assurances that there wasn't duplication of some of the charges.
Some of the other Harrow and Windsor-area individuals -- including Steve Sulja, Sam Sulja and Pranab Shah -- also named in the OSC charges didn't show for Monday's hearing although notified, according to OSC counsel Jonathan Feasby.
Fraud, selling of unregistered securities without a prospectus, market manipulation and making fraudulent statements were among the charges laid against Vucicevich and others after an 18-month OSC investigation
The multimillion-dollar stock fraud was mostly active through 2006-07 when a Sulja company incorporated in Nevada was touted as doing hundreds of millions of dollars in deals in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The Harrow-based lumberyard company with the same name had no legal connection with the Nevada company, other than sharing some of the same officers at various times. The lumberyard later went out of business.
The Sulja stock was sold on an over-the-counter electronic market. Ontario and Alberta imposed cease-trading orders on the stock, which have been continued, but it can still be purchased elsewhere.
Vucicevich was a former CEO of the Sulja (Nevada) company, as well as director of a Windsor-based company called Kore International Management Inc., which had a role in the stock fraud, according to the OSC charges.
Vucicevich told the OSC Monday that Kore wasn't an active operation any longer.
Vucicevich is also facing a criminal fraud trial in early 2011 after a parallel investigation by the RCMP of the stock manipulation.
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