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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tonto who wrote (77090)	5/29/2002 8:26:06 AM
From: bigbuk	Respond to of 122087

YBM MAGNEX in the news again ROFL Peterson upbeat on YBM - at first By RICHARD BLACKWELL Wednesday, May 29, 2002 – Print Edition, Page B5 TORONTO -- For the first four months he served as a director of YBM Magnex International Inc., former Ontario premier David Peterson thought the company was a well managed, high-growth magnet maker with a great future. Testifying yesterday for the first time at an Ontario Securities Commission hearing into allegations of wrongdoing against YBM directors, managers and advisers, Mr. Peterson said he "had no reason to suspect anything" about YBM when he joined its board early in 1996. "It seemed to have energy and verve going forward. There were no alarm bells going off." That all changed, Mr. Peterson said, when he walked into a board meeting on Aug. 15, 1996, and found the session packed with legal counsel. It was at that meeting that he first heard of an investigation of YBM by U.S. authorities, although details were scarce, he said. He said he was instrumental in getting outside help to get to the bottom of the situation by linking a special committee of the board with New York forensic investigating firm Fairfax Group Ltd. to find out what was going on. Mr. Peterson quit the YBM board in August, 1998, three months after the FBI raided YBM's Pennsylvania office and trading was halted in the company's stock. The YBM hearing, which began a year ago, is examining allegations that Mr. Peterson, other directors, the company's underwriters and managers all mislead OSC staff when YBM filed a prospectus for a November, 1997, share issue. The OSC said the defendants knew of alleged Russian mob connections and possible money laundering at the company, but did not disclose that to the regulator. Yesterday, one of the defendants, YBM lawyer Lawrence Wilder, signed a settlement with the OSC that frees him from the case. Mr. Wilder, a colleague of Mr. Peterson's at the law firm Cassels Brock & Blackwell, was accused of writing a misleading letter to commission staff urging them to approve the 1997 prospectus. The letter said the company had generated only positive due diligence, but the OSC said Mr. Wilder had seen the Fairfax report, which revealed a number of serious concerns about YBM. As part of his settlement Mr. Wilder wrote a letter of apology to the commission admitting he misled them. But the settlement says Mr. Wilder "makes no admission of any intention to mislead." Mr. Wilder agreed to pay $250,000 toward OSC costs of investigating and hearing his case, and another $150,000 the OSC rang up fighting for the right to take action against him.