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Gold/Mining/Energy : YBM Magnex Intl Sees Revenue Growth 30-35%/Yr In MagnetOp -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Adrian du Plessis who wrote (308)	11/2/1999 9:49:00 PM
From: Greg from Edmonton	Respond to of 314

Hey I heard your interview on CBC Radio One this evening commenting on the YBM Magnex scam, congrats on the interview! Greg

To: Adrian du Plessis who wrote (308)	3/23/2000 12:56:00 AM
From: EL KABONG!!!	Respond to of 314

YBM Magnex International Inc - Street Wire YBM's Wilder strikes out at OSC YBM Magnex International Inc YBM Shares issued 44,362,092 May 13/1998 close $14.35 Mon 20 Mar 2000 Street Wire LAWYERS ARE RESPONSIBLE TOO by Dan Westell Three judges of Ontario's Divisional Court could not find a single reason for exempting lawyers from the Ontario Securities Act, the written rationale for a recent oral judgment show. Madam Justice Katherine Swinton, writing for the panel, dismissed all the arguments advanced by lawyers for Lawrence Wilder and the Law Society of Upper Canada during a hearing Feb. 15. Mr. Wilder, a securities lawyer at Cassels Brock and Blackwell, was named in an Ontario Securities Commission notice of hearing last fall for allegedly misleading commission staff about affairs at his client, YBM Magnex International, during a prospectus review in 1997. Following release of the allegations, Mr. Wilder's lawyer moved to challenge the OSC's jurisdiction, arguing that the commission could not discipline lawyers acting as lawyers (as opposed to lawyers acting, for example, as company officers or directors). The Law Society supported Mr. Wilder, claiming that the Law Society Act gave it the exclusive right to discipline lawyers. The panel did not even hear from the OSC during the Feb. 15 hearing, rejecting the appeal without reasons after listening to Mr. Wilder and the Law Society. In the written reasons just released, endorsed by both other judges, Judge Swinton noted that "persons and companies" are covered by the section under which the allegation was made. "There is nothing in the wording of s.127(1)6 which would indicate that it does not apply to lawyers," she wrote. The applicants pointed to the OSC's lack of success in trying to get lawyers specifically included when the Securities Act came up for amendment in the early 1990s, and therefore concluded it lacks power to discipline lawyers acting in professional capacity. "This conclusion does not follow," the judge wrote, because the OSC was given powers to reprimand persons or companies in 1994. That was change from the previous wording, which restricted the commission's jurisdiction to registrants. In rewriting the act, the legislature "chose words which do not preclude their application to lawyers." The Law Society argued it alone can discipline lawyers, but "there is nothing inconsistent between the Law Society's role in regulating the legal profession and the Ontario Securities Commission's proposed exercise of jurisdiction in the circumstances of this case. The Law Society and the Ontario Securities Commission both exercise public interest functions, but the public interests which they seek to protect are not the same." Nothing in the Law Society Act says lawyers are exempt from the OSC. The applicants also complained that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's broad powers to discipline lawyers have a "chilling effect," discouraging lawyers from advocating their clients' positions as strongly as possible. The OSC "is not claiming powers here like those possessed by the SEC," Judge Swinton wrote. A constitutional issue was also raised, a claim that an independent judiciary depends on an independent bar. "The proposed proceeding against Mr. Wilder does not represent an encroachment on the independence of the bar. All the commission seeks to do here is to ensure that lawyers, among others, do not mislead the commission, in the way that Mr. Wilder is alleged to have done." The commission is concerned about a letter Mr. Wilder wrote to staff on July 8, 1997, when staff were worried about YBM's prospectus, which would eventually qualify $100-million in-stock and convertible debentures when finally approved in November. Staff was worried about rumours that YBM was connected with the Russian mafia. Mr. Wilder wrote that there had been "uniformly positive results" from all of YBM's due diligence. The OSC claims a report YBM commissioned almost a year earlier indicated potential problems. The OSC said it was not aware of the report until after YBM was placed in receivership in 1998. An April 5 date has been set to consider scheduling the hearing, which also names the company's officers, directors and underwriters. (c) Copyright 2000 Canjex PublishingLtd. canada-stockwatch.com KJC

To: Adrian du Plessis who wrote (308)	4/24/2003 7:52:37 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 314

Reputed Russian mobster indicted over fraudulent magnet co. By DAVID B. CARUSO The Associated Press 4/24/03 5:13 PM PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A reputed Russian mob boss was the brain behind a Pennsylvania industrial-magnet company that fleeced investors of at least $150 million, federal prosecutors said in an indictment unsealed Thursday. Semion Mogilevich, 56, and three alleged lieutenants are accused of concocting a complex scheme to make it appear as if YBM Magnex International, a Newtown, Pa., firm with a single factory in eastern Europe, was a major corporation with huge profits. In just four years, YBM saw its stock soar from 10 cents a share to around $14 a share on Canadian stock exchanges before officials halted trading in 1998. U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said the company was no more than "a well disguised illusion," worth a fraction of the value it claimed in financial reports. "Books were cooked. Auditors were deceived. Bribes were paid to accountants," Meehan said. FBI agents arrested YBM's former chief executive, Jacob Bogatin, Thursday morning at his home in Richboro. Mogilevich could be harder to find. A native of Ukraine, he holds citizenship in Israel, Hungary and Russia and his exact whereabouts are unknown, investigators said. He was last believed to be living in Moscow, said FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Lampinski, head of the bureau's Philadelphia field office. Russia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, and there is no guarantee that authorities there would arrest Mogilevich at the FBI's request, although they have promised to help locate him, Lampinski said. The 45-count indictment, filed in Philadelphia, charges Mogilevich and partners Igor Fisherman and Anatoly Tsoura with racketeering, money laundering, falsification of books and records, and a number of wire, mail and securities frauds. It is the first time Mogilevich has been charged with a crime in the United States. For years he has complained to European newspapers that he is a legitimate businessman being set up by the FBI. Investigators said they are also unsure of the whereabouts of Tsoura and Fishman. The indictment claims the group set up companies in the United States, Canada, eastern Europe and the Caribbean, to launder money, prop up the value of YBM and hide its ownership. YBM recorded fictitious sales, made up phony customer lists and set up sham offices to make it appear that its business was booming when, in fact, it had been only marginally productive, investigators said. The company's plant in Budapest, Hungary, did produce precision neodymium magnets, but far fewer than YBM claimed, authorities said. When the scheme collapsed, YBM had a total market capitalization of $450 million, authorities said. Mogilevich personally pocketed $18.5 million, the indictment said. In 1999 a federal judge fined the company $3 million and ordered it to repay more than $77 million to defrauded investors. YBM, as a corporation, pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to sell its $6.3 million headquarters to settle its debt. Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

To: Adrian du Plessis who wrote (308)	1/25/2008 6:24:01 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 314

Man linked to YBM fraud arrested in Russia Associated Press and Canadian Press Friday, January 25, 2008 MOSCOW — Russian police have arrested a suspected international crime boss sought by the FBI who allegedly bilked investors in a company incorporated in Canada out of millions of dollars. Semyon Mogilevich, a Ukrainian-born Russian citizen and the driving force behind defunct YBM Magnex International Inc., has long been wanted by the FBI on suspicion of involvement in organized crime. Mr. Mogilevich was detained in Moscow late Wednesday, said Angela Kostoyeva, spokeswoman for the Russian Interior Ministry's anti-organized crime unit. The businessman was detained under the alias of Sergei Schneider, she said, adding that he has used 17 other names and holds passports from several countries. A Moscow court approved his formal arrest Thursday. The FBI said on its website that Mr. Mogilevich and two other men were wanted for his alleged participation in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud investors in the stock of YBM, a company that formerly traded on the Toronto stock market. The ITAR-Tass news agency said Mr. Mogilevich, who also has Hungarian and Israeli citizenship, also has been sought by police in Ukraine and Israel on charges of money-laundering, racketeering, weapons smuggling and illegal energy deals. According to a U.S. indictment, investors in YBM Magnex lost $150-million (U.S.) through Mr. Mogilevich's scheme, which involved inflating stock values, false accounting and laundering money. Mr. Mogilevich ran the scheme from his base in Budapest but left Hungary for Moscow in 1999 after a special FBI task force was set up in Budapest. In just four years, YBM Magnex saw its stock soar from 10 cents a share to around $14 a share on the Toronto stock market before officials halted trading in 1998. In 1999, a U.S. judge fined the company $3-million and ordered it to repay more than $77-million to defrauded investors. YBM, as a corporation, pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to sell its $6.3-million headquarters to settle its debt. Nine YBM officers and board members - including former Ontario premier David Peterson - along with National Bank and investment dealer Griffiths McBurney, faced allegations of failing to disclose all material facts about YBM in a 1997 prospectus. Five YBM directors - but not Mr. Peterson - were variously ordered to repay the Ontario Securities Commission's investigation and hearing costs, ranging from $75,000 to $250,000 (Canadian), or barred from sitting on boards for a period of three years to life, or both. The OSC argued that YBM officials knew of allegations that company founders had ties to the Russian mob for months before investors were told. The respondents said there was no solid evidence of criminal activity. Hearings were held in Toronto over 18 months in 2001 and 2002. Mr. Mogilevich, who has an economics degree, has lived in Moscow for the past several years, according to news accounts. The 61-year-old businessman lived in Israel before moving to Hungary in 1995. Wednesday's arrest was made in connection with an investigation into an alleged tax evasion scheme by the owners of Arbat Prestige, a successful chain of Russian cosmetic stores. Dozens of police grabbed Mr. Mogilevich on the street near a supermarket, along with Vladimir Nekrasov, the majority owner of Arbat Prestige. The two men, who had been accompanied by a large group of bodyguards, surrendered without resisting. Authorities said Arbat Prestige was suspected of evading about $2-million in taxes. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the arrest. The U.S. has no extradition treaty with Russia. © Canadian Press