Frank --
I really find it futile and off topic to discuss questions such as yours, but here goes (for the last time).
First, as you know on Stockhouse, where you post anonymously as Tanoose, I have explained at length and repeatedly that by the time the AGM came around (June 25), there really wasn't anything to ask these distinguished gentlemen. The stock had crashed two weeks earlier, and Stockwatch had written about a dozen stories on various aspects of the saga -- from an 8,000-word series on what the court documents revealed, to Manuel Asensio's statements, to the nullified Carabobo properties and what the congressional report said that preceded that nullification. Each time I called the company and each time I didn't get a return call, except once, when Richard Marshall responded and we quoted him at length.
Had the Rabin & Peckel lawsuit been launched the day before the AGM, I most assuredly would have had questions for the board. You have to understand that news is news, and once it's gone it's difficult to get it back. By that I mean there's little point in asking a raft of questions to get caught up on everything you wanted to ask from the dozen previous stories. Marc Oppenheimer had his chance to address the issues with Stockwatch, and through Stockwatch to his shareholders, but chose not to. That's his call. In addition, this is a pattern noted also by editors at Platt's Metals and the Northern Miner -- two journals that wanted to interview Mr Oppenheimer at length, but were refused.
I didn't go to the meeting to ask questions, and after 2 hours of shareholder's questions and director's answers, there wasn't much left to ponder. I went to cover the meeting, which I did. I also have repeatedly said I rarely if ever ask questions at AGMs, since these events are for the benefit of shareholders, not journalists. We can pick up the phone anytime and try to speak with company officials, so why do it at an AGM? I also find it interesting that Avalon (whom I refer to as Mr Maturity) says he followed me into the meeting room and sat behind me and saw the notes I was taking.
After the 2-hour meeting was over, I got up and left. Avalon then accuses me of dodging him. Sorry, Av, I don't know what you look like, and as I've said you can e-mail me anytime your contact numbers, which is all I'd have asked you for if we had met. Mr Fung recognized me too, and very kindly walked over to say hello. Very nice fellow, and a good speaker, too. As is Mr Oppenheimer.
No, it was the shareholders' turn at the AGM, and boy did they ever have a lot to say -- most of it complimentary of management, too. I was especially interested to see one of the posters in attendance from the Stockhouse thread, who goes by the name of Au/The Listener. By golly, he wasn't a student as he claimed to be on the forum, after all! In fact, he turned out to be a stock broker from New Jersey. Was I surprised, or what! Au had all kinds of nice things to say about management, too.
Your pal Patrick Souami asks (repeatedly) who pays me to post. No one pays me to post. If someone paid me to post, I wouldn't be here at SI on a trial subscription, now would I? I'd expect my sponsor to do me better than that.
As for my original anonymity on Stockhouse, I thought anonymity was the way it was done. It certainly looked that way.
After GSTQ made the challenge to Roy Carson, I left my name and my employer's name with John Perkins at the London news agency and then told the forum that Mr Perkins never hired Mr Carson as network news editor, but he did correspond as a stringer based in Scandanavia (country unknown), and may have filled in temporarily in London while an editor was on holidays.
It did not surprise me when Roy called Mr Perkins to ask who had called him, and so found out who this GSTQ problem-maker was. (In spite of Roy's claims, by the way, a stringer is not a foreign correspondent. A stringer is a part-time journalist, or a freelance journalist. A foreign correspondent is employed by a news organization back home, as in "the BBC's Moscow correspondent." There's a large difference, as there is in the prestige the titles and responsibilities carry.)
Nevertheless, no one could produce any evidence from my anonymous postings as GSTQ that I "bashed" or libelled KRY in any way. I simply raised matters and questions that weren't otherwise being addressed in the forum. I soon learned, as well, that Avalon's role was to police the forum and to expel undesirables (and not just me, of course), in addition to pronouncing the "correct" interpretations of court documents and the like.
Further, I'm still waiting for someone to provide evidence that Stockwatch's stories are in any way in error.
Oh, yes. Niagra Falls-based Frank Lostracco and Montreal's Pat Souami allege there's a short-selling scheme going on involving Canaccord's Peter Brown and someone named MacDonald (Bruce?). Apparently I have a secret bank account in Barbados. I won't dignify this fatuous libel with a denial, but George Chelekis once printed these kinds of allegations against David Baines at the Vancouver Sun and earlier this year was sued successfully for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This has all been said on Stockhouse by me, many times. I hope SI readers don't mind this off-topic stuff.
Now, Frank, Pat, can we deal with Crystallex issues?
Jerry Collins
CSW |
