Friday, June 5, 1998
Obituary: David Walsh
Canoe Money's Bre-X archive
By SANDRA RUBIN
The Financial Post
David Walsh, the chain-smoking stock promoter who snatched fame and fortune from the jaws of
bankruptcy with Bre-X Minerals Ltd., only to see it slip from his grasp, died yesterday afternoon
from the effects of a massive stroke.
Walsh, 52, had been on life support since being felled by a ruptured brain aneurysm Sunday at his
luxury home in the Bahamas.
"Aside from the aneurysm, Mr Walsh was in excellent health," his doctor, Eugene Newry, said in a
statement. "He passed away while on life support."
By all accounts, Walsh had been under tremendous pressure since the exploration firm he founded
collapsed last year after being exposed as a world-class gold swindle. Walsh spent his final months
fighting class action lawsuits and talking about clearing his name.
Lawyers predicted none of the legal
manoeuvring will be derailed by his death
and the suits will continue against his estate.
"I want to send my condolences to his
family and friends," said lawyer Harvey
Strosberg, leading a $3-billion Canadian
class action. "Shakespeare summed up the
practicalities when he said, 'The evil that
men do lives after them, but the good is oft
interred with their bones.' "
Walsh tasted the highest of life's highs and
the lowest of its lows in what would turn out to be his final years of life. He and his wife Jeannette
filed for personal bankruptcy in 1992, $200,000 in debt. Walsh was running a penny stock outfit
from his basement the following year when he gambled his last $10,000 to fly to Jakarta and meet
with John Felderhof. He appeared to strike paydirt, acquiring the rights to an Indonesian gold
property Felderhof recommended.
Busang's reserve estimates seemed to rise as fast as Bre-X stock. It was the motherlode of picks
for investors who bought early. The shares skyrocketed from pennies in 1993 to over $286 each, on
a pre-split basis, by 1996 - making overnight millionaires of many.
Walsh was apparently sitting atop the biggest gold strike the world had ever seen. And he was rich.
He and Jeannette made about $45 million trading in Bre-X shares.
It wasn't to last. When he died, he was fighting a Bahamian court order freezing his assets and
putting the couple on a weekly allowance. It brought by Bre-X's Canadian bankruptcy trustee. Ross
Nelson said the action will continue against Walsh's estate. "But given this unfortunate circumstance,
we don't feel it appropriate to comment any further," he said from Calgary.
Walsh's death means he takes to the grave what knew about the celebrated gold fraud, although he
insisted less than three weeks ago in an affidavit that he had put his trust in Felderhof, and honestly
believed him when he said there was a huge gold deposit in Busang.
He has donated his body to medical science.
BREAKING NEWS
MARKET WATCH
BIZ TICKERS
MUTUAL FUNDS
MONEY RATES
BIZ SEARCH
Obituary: David Walsh
CIBC earnings fail to impress
Oil venture draws fire
Shulman aims to win Draxis
CANOE home | We welcome your feedback.
Copyright c 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership.
All rights reserved. Please click here for full copyright terms and restrictions.
|
