AIM High

Having been burned with government bureaucrats running the Alberta Government Venture Capital fund (VenCap) it was sold off by the Ralph regime to Onex corporation in 1995.
It had potential, and even with a deficit its shares were worth $8 on the TSX. Which was not bad for the time. But the debt and defict hysteria led the government to sell off this potential golden goose.

In terms of publicly-funded venture capital funds, Alberta’s experience has not been positive. Vencap was established by the Alberta government with funding of $240 million and the objective of investing in venture capital. Vencap experienced many of the same problems as LSVCCs – a lack of good investments and a reluctance to take risks. As a result, a relatively small percentage of Vencap’s equity ended up in new Alberta ventures. The Alberta Opportunity Company faced similar problems in operating a program to support investments in start-up knowledge-based industries.

Yet its deficit was still underwritten by the Heritage Trust fund five years later, the Ralph regime was panic driven, selling off all government services it could at fire sale prices..

December 2000: All of the loans made to provinces from 1977 to 1982 have been paid back on time and without any missed payments. The only project loans left on the Heritage Fund books are Vencap and Ridley Grain Ltd. for a total of $98.8 million, which represents 0.8% percent of the Heritage Fund's total portfolio.

The Government is a risk averse regime that would rather underwrite private capitalists than use it's own capital.

Institutional investors key to growth of city's tech sector

Unlike other provinces and public pension funds, including the federal CPP, Alberta was more interested in selling off government assets and services to the private sector, than developing its capital base with the Heritage Trust fund and its other investment funds.

Risk adverse, wanting to divest itself of any economic responsibility, "we are not in the business of business", the government finally has realized it is a capitalist state and should be investing its social capital. However its social capital is not just the Heritage Trust fund, but public sector pension funds as well.

In a move predicted to earn up to an extra $500 million a year, the Stelmach government plans to create a new provincial Crown corporation to oversee $70 billion worth of financial assets.

The Edmonton-based investment powerhouse will be the fifth-largest pool of managed capital in Canada.

It would be exceeded in size only by the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec ($143.5 billion), the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ($111 billion), the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan ($96.1 billion), and the B.C. Investment Management Corp. ($76.3 billion).

AIM Corp. would assume responsibility for managing the $16.3-billion Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, several public endowment funds -- including the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research -- and a basket of public-sector pension funds.

The latter includes the $13.5-billion Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP), the province's largest public pension fund, and the $5.7 billion Public Service Pension Plan, among several others.

A recent study for the government concluded a stand-alone organization would be the best way "to achieve investment excellence," Alberta Finance said in a brief news release.

"The proposal follows best practices for top public sector investment funds such as the Canada Pension Plan, the B.C. Investment Management Corporation and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan."

During the Ralph regime everything not making money was sloughed off and contracted out or privatized. In order balance out the reduction in royalties and taxes coming in from the Oil industry, in the nineties the PC's found that like many governments they were carrying pension debt. As the third party to the Local Authorities Pension Plan(LAPP) which covers all MUSH employees and management in Alberta, they never contributed to the plan, rather like other governments they put all pension earnings into general revenues.

In the late nineties with a deficit and debt crisis, they looked at the debt they owed the LAPP and hived it off in plans to allow the contributors, employees and management as well as MUSH employers, to run it. Without of course the governments missing contribution. This left the LAPP in a deficit situation, causing its members to have to pay for the governments debt owed them.

In return for paying down the governments debt to the LAPP the members of the plan were offered investment autonomy, with moves to privatize the plan under membership control. Which was not a bad thing. It removed statist bureaucracy and red tape at a time when the market was booming, and as a fund managed by employee representatives from unions, management and professional associations, and employers. The board was in place, and hired its own CEO,and investment managers, as well as holding a series of input meetings with the membership, both for feedback and for an explanation as to how the funds would be managed.

In a short five years the LAPP was out of debt and the members actually paid less then was expected and in fact got a payback for overpayment's of the government debt. The reason? Bre-X. While the Bre-X swindle saw many make fortunes on the largest run of a penny stock to a $200 share in the shortest period in Canadian mining history, even for the mining scandals of the sixties, many also lost fortunes as the shares collapsed under the salting scandal that ensued. But not the LAPP they made money off Bre-X, and other investments. Because they were autonomous and now were no longer risk adverse, that is they were investing to make up the deficit, while maintaining the capital for their fiduciary responsibility to their retirees.

Once out of debt and making money, as they have for a decade, the government realized it was selling the golden goose if it allowed full autonomy, it reigned in its plans to privatize the LAPP. It remained under autonomous management but was still a subject to regulation by the Finance Department.

Had it been allowed full autonomy it would have made even more money. As it was with partial autonomy, and its own investment policies and managers it went from a deficit to $13. 5 Billion in assets.

Seeing it had a golden goose again, the Government has refused out right autonomy and has moved away from privatization of LAPP. Which may be the reason for it not wanting to talk about how it is looting public pension funds to underwrite its new investment corporation.

I almost missed it, but there it was, posted on the Alberta finance department's website.

The cryptic, one-page news release outlined a bill, introduced in the legislature Tuesday, to create a new provincial Crown corporation called Alberta Investment Management Corporation, or AIM Corp.

It will boast roughly $70 billion in assets.

That was it. There was no fanfare. No press conference. No grandiose quotes about the cosmic significance of this bold initiative from Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, or Finance Minister Lyle Oberg. In fact, the latter didn't even respond to my followup call Wednesday. A department flack did.

The release itself was so blandly written it appeared designed to put reporters to sleep.

There is an irony here in that the ultimate capital partner in government P3 projects is not private hedge funds, nor private industry, but public pension funds. The Alberta government will find itself funding its own P3 projects with its new AIM Corporation. Just as governments world wide are being funded by Canadian institutional pension funds. And these same pension funds are crying about not having more government real estate and infrastructure projects in Canada to invest in.


See

P3

Your Pension Dollars At Work

P3= Public Pension Partnerships

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Alberta, Heritage Trust Fund, LAPP, Alberta Investment Management Corporation, Canada, Pensions, P3, public-private-partnerships, OMERS, CPP, Ontario-Teachers-Fund, OTF, Canada, investment, infrastructure, VenCap, shareholders, economics,

Finally Some Common Sense

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will be discussing a single national Stock Exchange Regulator for Canada with Provincial Premiers at the Western Canadian Premiers meeting over the next few days.

It's about time, we have too many crooks at the trough with our provincially regulated exchange commissions. Which is why Bernie Cornfeld and IOS could take advantage of our under-regulated market back in the 1960's for his Mutual Fund Swindles. And we all remember Bre-X., And the lack of a single national regulator is why Nelson Skalbania could get away with pulling a stock swindle that would have seen him in jail in the US.

Without regulation capitalism is a criminal enterprize.With regulation it is just a little less criminal it follows the rules, sometimes, just ask Lord Black or Ken Lay.

Ontario securities official wants clarity in release of corporate salaries


Also See:

Criminal Capitalism

Criminal Capitalism: Xstrata

The Canadian Panama Mining Swindle

Scandal in the Alberta Stock Exchange

Calgary Fraud Funds Dubai Boom

The Joys of Telemarketing

Corporate Welfare Bums

Criminal Capitalism at Modblog


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Stock-Eschanges, Canda, economy, capitalism, Flaherty, Conservatives, Regulation, Stock-Regulation, SEC, TSX, Cornfeld, Bre-X, Skalbania, Lord-Black, crime, corporate-crime, corporation,

Are Income Trusts A Ponzi Scheme

One has to worry about Income Trusts in Canada. The reason is that this country has such poor regulations around capital and investments, that it is literally the wild west for all sorts of get rich quick schemes. Bre-X was not an anomaly but business as usual.

Globeinvestor.com: Building Bay St.

The Toronto Stock Exchange was established in 1861, with 24 members (who paid $5 each to belong), trading 18 securities during half-hour daily sessions held at a local Masonic hall. But much of the action shifted to the cross-town Standard Stock and Mining Exchange, which was formed in 1901 and became the North American capital for mining shares and stock swindles. The Financial Post estimated that 400,000 investors were bilked out of $100 million, before the S&M was merged into the slightly more respectable TSE in 1934.

One of Bay Street's first major reforms was a crackdown on wash trading (a practice that created the appearance of activity through the manipulation of fictitious accounts) following the 1964 Windfall Scandal. Viola MacMillan, a doughty prospector, used the technique for fraudulent promotion of Consolidated Golden Arrow Mines. But it was Windfall Mines, another MacMillan company, that triggered the uproar after she drove up the price of its shares from 65 cents to $5.60 without any underlying value in the summer of 1964. She was later sentenced to nine months in jail in connection with Golden Arrow, but served just eight weeks. Windfall wasn't that much of a scandal because so many mine promoters followed her example, but the royal commission formed to investigate the case nevertheless recommended trading reforms. MacMillan died in 1993 at 90, fully pardoned and the holder of an Order of Canada. (Lenny Gaudet, please copy.)

Corporate crime in Canada is big business,it is actually business as usual, and it has had historic international or at least cross border connections with the United States.

Al Capone operated out of Moosejaw, the Bronfmans supplied Capone with booze and then operated on their own. Capone was indicted for income tax evasion, the Bronfmans are corporate big wigs in the international Entertainment business.

Corprate crime in Canada is still all wink, wink, nudge, nudge. And while corporate crime is big in Canada, in fact it is a major export, such as the boiler room swindle of British MP and author Jeffery Archer. The Canadain legal system is like Siberia when it comes to dealing with it, out in the cold and in the dark.

Welcome to the world of white-collar crime. It's always been there, but perhaps you didn't notice. A lot of criminologists like to refer to 1940 as the year when criminology first noticed, when Edwin Sutherland drew attention to it, and defined it as "crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation." Sutherland's (1949) pioneering study of legal action against the seventy largest U.S. corporations found that all seventy firms in the sample had at least one formal action against them, and that the average number of violations per company was fourteen. A full 60% of the firms had been convicted in criminal court. Goff & Reasons (1978) found similar white collar crime patterns in Canada, and Clinard & Yeager (1980) found that nearly two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies come under fire at least once a year for federal regulatory violations and/or violations of corporate/criminal law.

WHITE-COLLAR AND CORPORATE CRIME OVERLOOKED

While over one-million charges were laid against street criminals in 1988, only 23 were laid against corporations in the first two years of the 1986 Competition Act. According to Holmes, the lenient treatment of non-violent crime has led to the growth of a "get-something-for-nothing attitude." Similarly, many corporations view the penalties for corporate crime as a Òmere cost of doing business."

Judges require better corporate crime education: Judicial training has historically keyed on blue-collar wrongdoing

Securities regulators should place greater emphasis on restitution for aggrieved investors and Canada should create specialized criminal courts specifically for white-collar crimes, according to a York-authored study cited in the National Post June 15. 2005

Not surprisingly, said the Post, her paper also reiterated the widely held view that when compared with their US counterparts, Canadian regulators do not engage in enough enforcement activity and are less effective when they do. To support her assertion, Puri cited statistics that showed Canadian securities regulators devote a smaller percentage of their total budget to enforcement than their US counterparts. As well, Puri found financial penalties are 10 times higher in the United States than the average Canadian fine.

Corporate and white-collar crime is not victimless. The harms caused by corporate misconduct can result in substantial injury to a broad range of stakeholders, as witnessed by recent accounting and corporate governance scandals at Enron and Worldcom. Shareholders can lose their retirement savings, employees their jobs, and creditors significant investments. Ernst & Young fraud investigator Don Holmes estimates that white-collar crime costs Canadians $20-billion a year. The Canadian judiciary needs to recognize not only the magnitude and impact of corporate misconduct on large segments of the population, but also the broader ramifications of corporate crime on the Canadian economy.

The judiciary has historically treated white-collar criminal offenders more leniently in sentencing than blue-collar offenders. Compare robbery and burglary to accounting fraud and embezzlement. Compare tax evasion under the Income Tax Act to fraud under the Unemployment Insurance Act. Compare traditional theft to misleading advertising. Existing studies reveal that white-collar offenders are less likely to be imprisoned and that they receive lower average sentences and serve less time.

I am currently reading a great book on the 1960's mutual fund rip off done by Bernard Cornfeld, the book is called Do You Sincerely Want To Be Rich. Cornfeld and his company IOS were operated out of Europe and registered on the American Stock exchange via Ontario. They were underwritten by the Royal Bank of Canada. They sold mutual funds, and created a super fund of mutual funds which was really composed of lots of mini mutual funds that IOS created. When the market crashed in 1970 their swindle was revealed. Bernie retired to Hollywood to live with Hedi Fleiss, the Hollywood Madame.

Beautifully engraved Certificate from the Investors Overseas Services issued in 1969. This historic document was printed by the Canadian Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of of a semi nude female sitting in front of an major industrial facility above the company's nototious logo. This item has the printed signatures of the company's officers including Bernard Cornfeld as President and is over 34 years old. There are 32 unused coupons attached to the bottom of this certificate not shown in the scan.

Robert Vesco

Another notrious crook took over IOS, Robert Vesco. Vesco ran a variety of financial black market operations including involvement with the U.S. Military and the spook (spy) community. He like Bernie also operated out of Canada for a while.




Sep. 19, 1983 The New Jersey financier fled the U.S. in 1972 after being indicted on charges that he looted $224 million from the Geneva-based Investors Overseas Services Ltd., and illegally donated $200,000 to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. Since then Vesco has lolled in exile in the Caribbean, apparently in the Bahamas, safe from extradition efforts.

Subscribe below to instantly access this article - and over 30,000 articles in the TIME Ar

A Valhalla of the Vile/Here are the Felon Index rankings:

	Scammer	$mm (adjusted for inflation)	years served in prison	Felon Index Score
1.	Bernie Cornfeld (1970)	$2,305	0.92	2,514.5
2.	Michael Milken (1986)	$1,630	3	543.3
3.	Tino De Angelis (1963)	$1,170	7	167.1
4.	Stanley Goldblum (1973)	$1,209	8	151.1
5.	Ivan Boesky (1986)	$163	1.83	89.1
6.	Barry Minkow (1989)	$151	5	30.2
7.	Charles Ponzi (1920)	$ 17.9	5	3.6

The accounting firm Arthur Anderson, who also advised Mike Harris and his Ontario government about privatization schemes for work for welfare, was caught in the Enron scandal. But Wall Street knew about Andersons peccadillo for shady accounting. They had been Bernie Cornfelds IOS accounts back in the 1960's!

Enron and World Com were well connected with Bay Street and Canada's banking industry, CIBC the Royal Bank both had to bay out billions last year in fines for their involvement in the great dot.com swindle. And remember the Royal Bank underwrote Cornfelds IOS Fund of Funds back in the sixties.

Today CIBC is passing off its costs of fines for being a criminal onto its bond holders.
Bondholders warned to beware getting the short end of the stick

Then there are our own rip off artists, Nelson Skalbania and Peter Pocklington who profited during the wild boom and bust of the 1980's, taking advantage of the unregulated Alberta and B.C. stock market. They swindled investors, screwed workers, ripped off governments, and in the case of Pocklington never went to jail. Skalbania spent some time in jail, certainly less than an average street criminal. And once out was allowed to continue trading on the stock market in Canada.

Alberta is home to the Income Trust business in Canada. It originated in the petro-towers of Calgary. The first Canadian income trust was a petro trust. Modeled on the American Trusts, they have managed to become a tax haven because of loose or non existant tax rules.

Marcel Tremblay, inventor of Canadian income-trust structure, dies at 64

A bold business leader with more than 40 years of experience in Canada's investment-management and energy industries, Tremblay is best known as the inventor of the income-trust structure in Canada.

Tremblay designed and created Canada's first income trust, Enerplus Resources Fund, in 1986, spearheading a sector of the Canadian economy that now represents over 15 per cent of the market capitalization of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

"Convincing the brokerage community that this idea made sense was an almost impossible task," Tremblay told The Canadian Press in 2004.

"My objective was always to give investors the best return possible, minimize the taxation issues, preserve capital as much as possible and make sure they participate in the upside."

The effect that income trusts have had on the Canadian business landscape is dramatic, to say the least.

Income trusts are now the fastest-growing sector of Canadian capital markets because of their sizable distributions of income to unitholders and their considerable tax advantages over a standard corporate structure.

It is finally after all the political debate this past year a business that is now under the scrutiny of Standard and Poors in the U.S.

Obscure income trust reports can mislead investors: S&P

The two analysts said income trust reports are so obscure, and so full of distortions, they can easily lead investors astray. To make it worse, key information is often missing.

"Coupled with insufficient and inconsistent disclosure by management, the information risks inherent in this area of the Canadian capital markets continue to be quite significant," S&P said.

.

This is far more important an investigation than who leaked the Income Trust announcement. Though the profiteering off that announcement is an iconic metaphor for the shady nature of Income Trusts. Just as their name says it all, hiding income from the tax man

Also see:
Income Trusts
Corporate Welfare Bums
Criminal Capitalism
Crime



Tags
Canada
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tax cuts
swindles
crime
white collar crime
corporate crime
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Scandal in the Alberta Stock Exchange

Updated April 28, 2005

Business community not worried about Alberta Securities controversy: Klein

Welcome to the Alberta Reich. Once again, Herr Klein has allowed the fox to run the hen house. In doing so the all too predictable has happened.

Instead of admitting that provincial regulation (or non regulation ) of the Alberta stock exchange is a FAILURE and a SCANDAL of insider trading proportions. The Alberta Reichstadt circles the wagons in defense of its own, while Ralph goes golfing.

Klein still confident of the ASC
EDMONTON - Premier Ralph Klein says he does not believe investors are worried about the performance of Alberta's securities watchdog despite its recent controversies.

The Finance Minister at first dismisses media reports on abuses and questionable practices inside the ASC. Now she is supposedly acting on them. But the ASC see's itself as being above government oversight, ah the conundrum of self regulation comes home to roost with the Tories.

Alta securities commission says auditor general can't see enforcement files
Thursday, April 28, 2005
EDMONTON (CP) - The Alberta auditor general's investigation into the Alberta Securities Commission has hit a snag. Commission officials say they failed to reach an agreement with Fred Dunn about the parameters of his probe and that if they can't find common ground, they will refuse him access to their files. ASC spokesman Rod McLeod said he's not sure where the two sides go now. "We told Mr. Dunn that his proposed scope of audit may require the ASC to breach statutes and legal obligations placed upon us by the Securities Act (and) that we cannot and will not do," McLeod told reporters in Calgary. He said they are waiting for a written response from Dunn. "If we can live with the (parameters), we'll proceed. If we cannot, we'll have no alternative but to deny Mr. Dunn access to documents we feel statutorily obligated to protect."

Finance Minister Shirley McClellan tried to referee the two provincial bodies Thursday, saying she is confident both sides can work it out and the probe will go ahead. "I have every confidence that the auditor general and the securities commission and their legal people will interpret the appropriate sections and ensure that within the bounds of the legislation that the auditor general will receive all the information that's pertinent to his investigation," she told the legislature. She pointed out that both bodies were creatures of the Alberta legislature and said she was confident they will sort out who has authority to do what.

ASC Restrictions Ruin Any Chance of Proper Investigation, Taft

Edmonton – Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft is calling the Alberta Securities Commission’s efforts to restrict the Auditor General’s investigation of the commission proof positive that the review will fall well short of getting to the bottom of recent allegations.

ASC sets restrictions on audit information

By DAVE EBNER

Friday, April 29, 2005 Page B10 Globe and Mail

The Alberta Securities Commission has placed restrictions on the information the Alberta Auditor-General can look at in an audit of the regulator. The ASC, which is dealing with a controversy over questionable enforcement practices, said the Alberta Securities Acts deems all information connected to enforcement matters to be confidential. The Auditor-General is planning to release a report on its audit in July and this week outlined specific things it wanted to look at, including procedures the ASC uses to ensure that "conclusions or decisions are adequately documented." The ASC restrictions "ruin any chance of proper investigation," said Kevin Taft, leader of Alberta's Opposition Liberals.

Instead of admitting there is a serious if not criminal situation inside the ASC the Finance Minister calls on the workers to blow the whistle on their bosses. And, again predictably, when they do they get fired by their ASC bosses in order to cover up their excesses and abuses. Catch 22.

De-Regulation, self regulation, all the so called free market solutions to the crisis of the Capitalist state are applied here in Alberta with Republican-lite glee. As a result of the Wild West atmosphere of the oil boom without end, the serious flaws in the de/un regulated market are swept up under the carpet of oh look there’s another gusher.

How many failures of privatization and deregulation must occur before the Alberta Volk wake up and smell the coffee. Let me count the ways……Ralph’s offer of being hung, drawn and quartered still stands…..when will we take him up on it…..

The scandals in Alberta, the democratic deficit, the pocketing of taxpayers money for contract work that wasn’t tendered nor ever done, by a Tory insider, the failure of electrical deregulation, the current ASC scandal, every problem in Ottawa is once again mirrored in Alberta.

This is what happens when political parties are in power too long and without opposition that can defeat them. Such was the case after eight years of Mulroney’s Conservatives in Ottawa and after ten years of the Chrétien Liberals in power.

In Alberta the Party of Calgary has been in power for 33 years, and Ralph has been in power for 11 of those. Just think of all the skeletons in the Legislature that they have accumulated.

Below are the current updates, as they say watch this space as more of the facts behind this MAJOR STOCK EXCHANGE SCANDAL are revealed.

Following the updates are the April 1 and March 23 stories that exposed the scandal in the ASC. See the comments section where I have added the news updates between April 1 and April 23 when the ASC bosses began their campaign of intimidation of the staff.

Click here for Google news links to all the stories on the ASC. This just gets better and better, and the silence from the Government or at least Ralph is deafening. This is the Ad scam of Alberta.

THE ASC WITCH-HUNT BEGINS

The Alberta Government began investigating the ASC because of pressure from the media and the financial industry.

The audit they have called for has resulted in exposing ASC staff to arbitrary dismissal by their ASC bosses for being Whistle Blowers in the ASC...

According to the provincial Liberals; The Witch Hunt is On.

Internal Audit Committee an Extension of PC Party into Government

Kevin Taft, leader of the opposition Liberals, said an out-of-province investigator is needed to clear up the "sorry mess." "We basically have a clubby situation in which Tories are investigating Tories . . . and lo-and-behold the real picture never emerges," Mr. Taft said. "There is too much smoke for there not to be some serious fire burning there." Globe and Mail April 26 2005

Alberta Securities Commission staff implore finance minister to step in

Canadian Press

Thursday, April 28, 2005

EDMONTON (CP) - Alberta Finance Minister Shirley McClellan has been implored by staff at the Alberta Securities Commission to intervene in a controversy that has dogged the regulator for months.

In a two-page letter to the minister dated Monday, 35 current commission employees accuse two senior officials of "bullying and intimidating behaviour." The result, they say, is that the work of the ASC, Canada's second-largest market regulator, is suffering and staff are afraid to co-operate with three investigations currently underway.

The employees complain specifically about the actions of chairman Stephen Sibold, whose contract expires next week, and executive director David Linder. Neither man was available for comment.

Sibold and Linder have denied earlier allegations of misconduct at the ASC, including interference in investigations of Alberta Securities Act violations.

The letter from employees is the latest development in an ongoing controversy that surfaced earlier this year surrounding the commission.

Sibold previously referred to anonymous complainants as "depraved" and "cowardly" and threatened legal action against them. He has also threatened to sue newspapers that reported the allegations.

In the legislature, McClellan had urged employees to come forward with any evidence and assured them there would be no reprisals.

Last week senior ASC administrator Grahame Newton was fired for allegedly failing to co-operate with a KPMG forensic audit of commission computers.

The employees' letter says the firing has spawned greater fears among the 100-member staff and added to the "high stress levels, extreme distrust and paranoia" of recent months.

In addition to the KPMG investigation, the commission has hired consultants to address "human resources problems" discovered in an earlier probe by Calgary lawyer Perry Mack.

Finance Minister pulls a Duh oh!

McClellan says ASC needs to keep her informed

Apr 26 2005
CBC News EDMONTON – Finance Minister Shirley McClellan says someone at the Alberta Securities Commission should have informed her that a senior administrator was going to be fired. McClellan says she needs to know what's going on at the commission because she is the person answering questions about its operations.

A big Opps......now, only now, days later does the Minister demand that the ASC answer to her. A bit of a back hand slap, for their arbitrary firing of a whistle blower. Hmm arbitrary actions is one of the things the ASC insiders are accused of doing........

ASC administrative head dismissed

CBC News

CALGARY – The Alberta Securities Commission's director of administrative services has been fired. Grahame Newton said he was informed of his dismissal in a letter couriered to his home Thursday night, but that the reasons cited are without foundation. He wouldn't elaborate, but said he believes the real reason he was let go is that he was one of the people who spoke out about problems at the commission.

Alberta Liberals attack ASC computer investigation
Globe and Mail
By DAVE EBNER
Friday, April 22, 2005
A forensic computer probe at the Alberta Securities Commission is producing a "fearful and intimidating climate," said Alberta's Liberal Opposition Leader Kevin Taft in the legislature's question period yesterday. Finance Minister Shirley McClellan said Mr. Taft had "a great deal of ignorance" about how the computer probe is being conducted. The ASC said this week that it hired KPMG to assess the security of its computer systems, particularly e-mail. Ms. McClellan said the probe was in no way trying to expose ASC employees who provided anonymous allegations of lax enforcement practices at the commission for in an investigation earlier this year. Those allegation were found to be untrue.

OFFICIAL TERMINATED FOR CAUSE, ASC SAYS
By DAVE EBNER and KATHERINE HARDING
Globe and Mail
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Controversy at the Alberta Securities Commission intensified yesterday with the official announcement that one senior employee at the regulator has been fired. The part-time commissioners who oversee the ASC said in a press release that Grahame Newton, the commission's director of administrative services, was terminated for cause because he did not co-operate with an audit of the ASC's computer systems and admitted to "the interception of several private e-mail communications among ASC staff." A lawyer for Mr. Newton said there were no grounds to terminate for cause, adding that Mr. Newton co-operated fully with the computer audit. The ASC has been rocked by anonymous allegations of lax enforcement and unprofessional behaviour. The computer audit was started as part of an investigation into those allegations, most of which have been declared unfounded by the part-time commissioners.

Alberta Securities Commission says it had just cause to fire employee

April 23, 2005

Investor advocate Diane Urquhart said Friday that the firing of Newton in the midst of the turmoil at the securities commission will not go over well with the investing public. "If in fact someone has had a remedial termination because of an allegation of providing information . . . it's unacceptable and the investing public should be very concerned," she said. Urquhart was skeptical of the timing of the KPMG audit. "It's entirely reasonable for a forensic audit to occur . . . but right in the middle of a human-resources fiasco makes no sense from a management point of view. It's oil on a fire." Newton was fired the same day Alberta Finance Minister Shirley McClellan told the legislature there was no witch hunt underway.

APRIL 1, 2005

The 'top brass' are covering their ass in fine old Troy tradition, must be Tories they deny like Klein. The Alberta Securities Commission proves the need for ONE NATIONAL REGULATOR, like the SEC in the US. Here we have five, count 'em five stock markets across Canada no uniform rules, and no single body responsible for those exchanges.

"Unlike the U.S. and its powerful SEC, there is no national regulator in Canada. It's an international anomaly that dates to the British North America Act of 1867, which divvied up government responsibilities and decreed property a provincial matter. Until the late 1990s, the stock market followed a similar pattern: there were five separate exchanges in Canada. They've consolidated somewhat, but the regulators who oversee the markets haven't managed to move in tandem. Instead, they've been bogged down by an ages-old Canadian political game, that tug of war for power between Ottawa and the provinces." Canada needs a securities watchdog with teeth

The Alberta exchange has had scandals before,Bre-X being the most infamous, fraudulent penny stocks, insider trading, in fact in the 1980's and '90's the Alberta and the Vancouver Stock exchanges were known as the bad boys of the marketplace, promoting boiler room stock operations which were documented in the Financial Post, which is now part of the National Post.

The Infamous Vancouver Stock Exchange

In the novel, the company established by Granger McAdam to exploit his diamond find in Vietnam is listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange (VSE) which specialised in the financing of junior mining companies all over the world. However it was also one of the most controversial stock exchanges in the world and had been described as the Sodom and Gommorah of modern day financial markets. Its reputation makes Cassie Stewart's task of raising money to finance a diamond mine more difficult.

"Vancouver has all sorts of dodgy companies on the Exchange, cowboys, fly-by-nights."

"This market's not like London. It's pretty wild, with all sorts of unscrupulous operators, lots of manipulation."

Despite her confidence, Cassie discovers that the Vancouver Stock Exchange's notoriety is not exaggerated! Nevertheless the risks she runs in tangling with the sharks in Vancouver are as nothing compared with those that await Eva when she returns to Vietnam ...

N.B. In reality on November 29th, 1999 the Vancouver and Alberta stock exchanges merged to form the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX). The reputation of the Alberta Stock Exchange had been greatly damaged by the BRE-X scandal. It is to be hoped that the CDNX will enjoy a much better reputation than its two predecessors!"

With the Klein revolution of getting government out of the business of regulation or oversight, what do you expect in an oil rich speculative market place but speculation. Welcome to the wild west, where anything goes, investor beware you will get screwed and don't go to the sheriff cause he's on the take.

NO FOOLING

ASC issues raised year ago

Letter to government: Former senior enforcement officer outlined concerns

Theresa Tedesco, Chief Business Correspondent

Financial Post
Friday, April 01, 2005

The Alberta government was warned about "significant ethical shortcomings" in the executive offices at the Alberta Securities Commission last year, according to a confidential letter obtained by the Financial Post.

The four-page missive delivered in January, 2004, to Greg Melchin, Alberta's former revenue minister, claimed there was a "two-tier regulatory regime" with one set of rules for "normal" people and another for the "powerful." The letter also alleged senior executives engaged in favouritism among staff, exchanged "erotic" e-mails, and condoned an "open display of sex toys" in the regulator's offices.

The letter, written on Jan. 9, 2004, by Wayne Alford, a former ASC enforcement director, lists four incidents of what he described as "significant ethical failing," and warned that "should they become public knowledge, would certainly bring the administration of Alberta's securities laws into disrepute if not open ridicule."

Mr. Alford, who resigned from the securities watchdog in December, 2003, urged Mr. Melchin to "intercede" and "address the abuses at the ASC."

In one case, Mr. Alford claimed Mr. Sibold decided whether the commission would pursue an enforcement action against a Calgary lawyer, who was also a former law partner of Mr. Sibold, in connection with an insider trading case. In the end, according to Mr. Alford, enforcement staff "received instruction from Sibold and Linder not to pursue this case even though the case was strong and in the opinion of staff, completely sustainable."

Mr. Sibold is also alleged to have become involved in a case involving another Calgary lawyer who had been investigated for providing misleading information to the Toronto Stock Exchange. The unnamed lawyer was also a partner at Mr. Sibold's former law firm in Calgary. Mr. Alford wrote that Messrs. Sibold and Linder instructed enforcement staff to "discontinue enforcement action" against the individual. Instead, the ASC issued a public notice that provided guidelines for lawyers about their obligations when dealing with regulators.

"The enforcement action was terminated notwithstanding staff's opinion that the case was strong and completely sustainable," Mr. Alford wrote.

In the third example, Mr. Alford claimed Mr. Sibold "objected strenuously to staff" who commenced an enforcement action against an unnamed, prominent Canadian businessman for alleged insider trading. After reviewing the file, Mr. Sibold's view, according to the letter, was that "there was no case" against the businessman, and he ordered his staff to "seek a quick and very insignificant settlement to the file." However, ASC enforcement lawyers involved in the case objected in writing to Mr. Sibold. In any event, the businessman subsequently "admitted to all of staff's allegations relating to insider trading."

ASC SCANDAL BACKGROUND

Alberta regulator lashes out at 'depraved' accusers
Globe and Mail Thursday, March 24, 2005

CALGARY -- Stephen Sibold, the embattled chairman of the Alberta Securities Commission, denied allegations of misconduct yesterday, calling his accusers "depraved."

"I challenge these cowardly and depraved individuals who are hiding behind anonymity to come forward, identify themselves and present what they take to be evidence supporting their baseless and false allegations," Mr. Sibold said during a brief press conference held at the ASC offices in Calgary.

He answered no questions about the allegations, on the advice of his lawyer.

In an e-mail to commission staff yesterday morning, Mr. Sibold called the allegations "malicious and vicious," ending the four-paragraph missive by saying he wanted to "prosecute these depraved individuals."

Mr. Sibold announced that he was serving a defamation notice to the National Post and the reporter who authored two stories that appeared in the paper yesterday.

The articles, citing unnamed sources, described the commission as dysfunctional, specifically saying that the regulator's top executives interfered in enforcement cases.

Mr. Sibold, whose term as chairman ends in May, and David Linder, the commission's executive director, were identified by the unnamed sources at the commission, according to the articles.

The accusations have thrown one of Canada's largest securities regulators -- the overseer of the country's oil and gas business -- into disarray.

Mr. Sibold forbade his communications staff to talk about the issue to reporters.

Meanwhile, the Alberta government is continuing its search for a new chairman, but a spokeswoman for the Finance Minister said only one round of interviews has been completed.

Mr. Sibold's five-year term ends in May.

All this is occurring as the province awaits the results of an investigation it requested in January over the ASC's regulatory practices.

The vigour with which the commission has pursued enforcement cases is at the heart of the allegations against Mr. Sibold and Mr. Linder, several securities lawyers said. Some believe the commission hasn't been tough enough.

Mr. Linder, who has been executive director since late 1997, said in a statement that the allegations had "no merit," adding that the commission during his tenure has operated under "the very highest standards of propriety, professionalism, fairness, respect and integrity."

The province's investigation into the allegations began in January when Alberta Finance Minister Shirley McClellan asked the ASC's nine part-time commissioners to look into suggestions of wrongdoing.

Calgary lawyer Perry Mack was hired to interview the complainants, whose accusations were submitted to the part-time commissioners on Feb. 16. On Monday, a report with Mr. Sibold and Mr. Linder's responses to the complaints was submitted.

"There's nothing I can tell you," said Mr. Mack when contacted yesterday.

The reports will likely be part of a package and will be handed to Ms. McClellan soon, but not this week, said Alan Hunter, a partner at Code Hunter LLP in Calgary who is representing the nine commissioners.

Meanwhile, players in Alberta's capital markets await a decision on the Blue Range Resource Corp. scandal, a much-anticipated ruling that has been long delayed and is expected at the end of April. (The ASC alleges that Blue Range executives misled investors over the company's oil and gas production and reserves.)

Mr. Sibold was appointed chairman of the commission in May, 2000, for a five-year term. It was announced last October that his tenure would not be extended.

This week, the Alberta cabinet passed an order-in-council that makes this May the official end of his term.

A previous order-in-council had the end of his term as March 31, even though his contract with the commission had the term's end as May.

Tracy Balash, the spokeswoman for the Finance Minister, said the order was "just correcting an administrative error."

She said she believed that no one had noticed the inconsistency between the original order and the contract until recently.

Asked why the Alberta cabinet would make the order given the accusations against Mr. Sibold, Ms. Balash said: "You can't make decisions on a human resource matter when you're dealing with allegations that haven't been proven."

Mr. Sibold, in his e-mail to the commission staff of about 120, said he was "gratified" that the government "has clarified my term of office."

His last day is May 7.


Securities watchdog turmoil
Alberta commission facing review, lawyer denies claims
Theresa Tedesco
National Post
Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Senior officials at the Alberta Securities Commission interfered with enforcement cases, engaged in favouritism and condoned lewd conduct among staff, according to allegations contained in a confidential report prepared for the regulator's commissioners.

The National Post has learned that an unprecedented review into the conduct of the provincial watchdog's executive ranks, including Stephen Sibold, outgoing chair of the ASC, and David Linder, executive director, revealed a "dysfunctional" agency with questionable management practices, lax governance and a "toxic" atmosphere that contributed to staff departures in recent years.

According to sources, a detailed report prepared by prominent Calgary lawyer Perry Mack for the ASC's board of commissioners is based on claims made by a group of about six whistleblowers and supported in subsequent interviews by about 30 former and current employees. Mr. Mack, who was hired by the ASC's 12-member board of commissioners in January, tabled his findings in mid-February.

The extraordinary probe was ordered by Shirley McClellan, Alberta's Deputy Premier and Finance Minister, after she was advised about "allegations" into the conduct of the ASC's chair and executive director two months ago. According to a one-page letter sent to the ASC's board of commissioners on Jan. 12, Ms. McClellan stated "the allegations appear to be sufficiently serious to justify further investigation." The Finance Minister, who is responsible for the ASC, told the board to report back to her on "what actions the commission intends to take with respect to these complaints."

Among the complaints current and former staff reported to Mr. Mack, sources say, are allegations that executive managers obstructed the work of enforcement staff by directly influencing whether the regulator would pursue cases against certain companies and individuals.

"Every week we had to justify our cases. It was routine that staff was asked to drop cases," said a source familiar with the regulator who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. "It was made clear that certain people and companies were not to be troubled and were being protected from regulatory activity."

Messrs. Sibold and Linder did not respond to repeated calls or e-mails. However, Alan Hunter, a lawyer representing the ASC's nine part-time commissioners, said yesterday that "the matters are internal to the commission and are highly confidential."

In response to questions sent to Messrs. Sibold and Linder by the National Post, Mr. Hunter said, "Many of your allegations are not accurate."

The allegations raise troubling questions about the credibility of one of Canada's largest securities regulators. The ASC is responsible for governing all publicly traded companies in Alberta, including some of the largest oil and gas companies in Canada. The provincial regulator administers Alberta's securities act, rules and regulations and it also oversees the TSX Venture Exchange.

Sources told the Post that most of the ASC's senior management have revolted against the chair and his lieutenant over what they claim to be an oppressive work environment that has fostered deep tensions and resentment among the rank-and-file.

Since Mr. Mack tabled his report to the ASC board of commissioners almost six weeks ago, sources say a rift has ensued and that the most senior executives are now barely communicating with the rest of the staff.

"The atmosphere has become such that we cannot carry out our business," said a source familiar with the regulator who asked not to be named. Another official described the atmosphere as "untenable" and "poisonous," saying that "there isn't much work getting done these days. People are hunkered down."

According to sources familiar with the complaints, Messrs. Sibold and Linder are said to have fostered a "cowboy mentality" that encouraged favouritism, especially among female members. "The chair acts like a horny teenager," said a source who asked not to be named.

At the same time, sources say senior lawyers, accountants and investigators at the ASC chafed at what they described as inappropriate sexual behaviour in the fourth-floor executive suites, including the frequent circulation of lascivious e-mails on the regulator's computer system and an inflatable sex doll prominently displayed in the offices.

"Skill and intrinsic ability didn't have much to do with how you were evaluated in performance appraisals and remunerated," said a source who filed a complaint with Mr. Mack. "The route to the top was to flatter the chair, wear low-cut blouses and shake what you've got."

Mr. Mack, a well-regarded corporate lawyer, declined to comment for this article, saying, "everything I do or don't do is confidential."

Messrs. Sibold and Linder are said to have responded to the allegations in Mr. Mack's report. The board of commissioners has been meeting this week to decide its next course of action. The group is also required to report back to the Finance Minister.

In the meantime, many of the ASC's 119 employees fear recriminations in the wake of the unprecedented investigation and ensuing scandal. Members of the staff are particularly worried that Messrs. Sibold and Linder are currently conducting performance reviews of all employees, which will determine their salaries and bonuses for fiscal 2005, beginning on April 1.

"Generally, people are feeling harassed," said an insider who asked not to be named. "I think a number of people expect life to become unpleasant."

Beleaguered commission employees blame the board of commissioners for failing to address their concerns, especially because the human resources committee of the board receives all exit interviews of senior managers who quit. Sources say those interviews were littered with serious complaints against the ASC's executive management. "If there had been any kind of oversight, these things wouldn't be happening," said a disgruntled official.

Meanwhile, Finance Ministry officials are currently assessing candidates to replace Mr. Sibold. Last October, the provincial government announced it would not reappoint Mr. Sibold to a second five-year term. He was expected to leave the ASC at the end of March, however, Mr. Sibold's employment contract entitled him to stay on until May 7 and an order-in-council was signed yesterday to accommodate an extension. (His two-year term as chair of the Canadian Securities Administrators ends next week.)

Mr. Linder continues to function as the commission's chief administrative officer, a post he has held since 1997. Unlike Mr. Sibold, he does not sit on the board of commissioners.

© National Post 2005