Former Bre-X chief Walsh dies at Bahamas hospital
Reuters Story - June 04, 1998 23:32
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(Updates with quote from lawyer, background, details.)
By Athena Damianos
NASSAU, Bahamas, June 4 (Reuters) - David Walsh, former
chief of Canada's Bre-X Minerals Ltd. , which
collapsed last year after its claim of a massive Indonesian
gold discovery was exposed as a fraud, died Thursday in the
Bahamas, a hospital spokeswoman said.
"Mr. Walsh passed away at 2:15 (p.m. EDT/1815 GMT) this
afternoon," said Kelly Knowles, vice president of nursing
services at Doctors Hospital in Nassau. She declined further
comment.
Walsh, 52, was rushed to Doctors Hospital on Sunday morning
after suffering a stroke. He was placed on life support in the
hospital's intensive care unit in critical condition amid
rumors he was brain dead.
Walsh was former president of Calgary-based Bre-X Minerals,
which collapsed a year ago amid a controversy over a gold
discovery in the jungles of Indonesia which the company had
billed as the find of the century.
The claim transformed Bre-X into a $4 billion company
almost overnight, but its potential partner Freeport-McMoRan
Copper and Gold Inc. ultimately said its checks turned
up no significant traces of gold at the Busang site on Borneo
and Bre-X stock was reduced to worthless paper.
An independent audit later concluded that Bre-X's data on
Busang was falsified on a scale "without precedent in the
history of mining anywhere in the world."
Investigators hired by Bre-X in the wake of the debacle
absolved Walsh of any wrongdoing in a report last October but
many bitter investors never forgave Walsh. He proclaimed his
innocence, saying he had been duped as the investors were.
The company's investigators said chief geologist Michael de
Guzman orchestrated the swindle. De Guzman died when he fell
out of a helicopter on March 19, 1997 as he returned to the
project to meet with geologists from Freeport-McMoRan as the
scandal unfolded.
Dozens of lawyers in Canada and United States have launched
class action suits against Bre-X and its officials on behalf of
angry shareholders.
On Friday, the Bahamas Supreme Court froze all the assets
of Walsh and his wife at the request of Deloitte and Touche,
the accounting firm handling the Bre-X bankruptcy.
Walsh's wife Jeannette, who had been staying at the
couple's villa, Ocean Place, in Cable Beach outside of Nassau,
said this week she would not discuss her husband with the
media.
Her attorney, Paul Adderley, told Reuters after Walsh's
death, "It's an unfortunate situation, quite frankly. Very
unfortunate, from our point of view."
He added, "It doesn't change anything as far as Mrs. Walsh
is concerned. I represent Mrs. Walsh," but declined to
elaborate. Attorneys representing shareholders in the
multi-billion lawsuits over the company's failure have said
they planned to sue both Walshes if they could.
Walsh's survivors also included his sons Brett and Sean.
Attorneys representing Bre-X shareholders said the suits
would proceed and would not be affected by Walsh's death. |
