Les Price Acquitted on All Counts:
Medinah's Price Jubilant After Bermuda Short Acquittal
Re: 2/9/04 - [MDMN] Stockwatch:
2004-02-09 22:03 ET - Street Wire
http://new.stockwatch.com/swnet/newsit/newsit_newsit.aspx?bi...
by Brent Mudry
It took a Miami jury just four hours to acquit Leslie (Les) Philip Price on all Bermuda Short charges, after an eight-day trial and an 18-month legal fight, which cost the veteran Vancouver penny stock promoter $400,000. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)
"I broke down (after the verdict). I was so elated and my lawyer was so elated," Mr. Price told Stockwatch in a phone interview Monday after his acquittal in United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
"You have no idea how vile the U.S. federal (court) system is. It is garbage -- just pure garbage," stated Mr. Price. "I proudly wear my Canadian flag and I will wear it a lot more proudly now than two weeks ago."
Medinah shares rose three-hundredths of a cent to a half-cent on Monday on the OTC Bulletin Board, on volume of 1.17 million shares.
Mr. Price, the former head of North Vancouver-based Medinah Minerals, was found not guilty on all 14 counts, including one count of conspiracy, 10 counts of wire fraud, two counts of securities fraud and a related count of money laundering $9,980 of proceeds. Readers should note the money laundering charge relates solely to an alleged stock deal, and has no relation to the drug money laundering charges against other Bermuda Short defendants in unrelated indictments.
"I was on the witness stand for three solid days. That was gruelling, absolutely gruelling," states Mr. Price.
Neither defence lawyer Paul Donnelly nor Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Hong, the lead prosecutor, could be reached for immediate comment on the acquittal.
While Mr. Price has no firm celebration plans yet for his return home to Vancouver, he says he was besieged by phone calls from supporters, associates and lawyers from "all over the world" after his acquittal. "I tell you what I'm doing after this call -- I'm going downstairs to the bar in this hotel, I'm going to get so stinking drunk they're going to have to drag me up to my room," Mr. Price told Stockwatch.
The jury was told Mr. Price was unwittingly introduced into the sting by co-defendant Joe Huard, a Shamrock Partners principal who pled guilty, and the lure of a $5-million financing for Medinah by undercover FBI officers posing as representatives of a fictitous British mutual fund.
The star figures in the sting, who never testified, were controversial U.S. penny stock promoters David Jones and Robert Schlien, who served as key federal operatives, dubbed co-operating witnesses.
The indictment claims Mr. Price agreed to arrange for co-defendant Mr. Huard, the undercover agent, co-operating witnesses and a fictitious corrupt fund manager a total of $1.5-million in undisclosed kickbacks in return for the fictitious fund buying $5-million worth of overpriced Medinah shares. Only a small fraction of these large planned amounts ever changed hands, in what authorities call a "test trade." The indictment claims the fictitious fund wired $25,000 to purchase 25,000 Medinah shares, and Medinah, on Mr. Price's instructions, wired back an alleged bribe of $10,000, less a $20 bank fee, to the undercover agent's account in Miami.
Mr. Price says there was a "big disconnect" between indictment allegations allegations against him, especially on the bribery claims, and the evidence at trial. "I don't bribe brokers -- I don't need to bribe brokers," Mr. Price notes he stated on the only favourable undercover tape the defence was able to get tendered as evidence.
"Basically this was a tape case. There were 168 tapes (of undercover conversations) and they (the government) said that only 90 were apropo. They played (in court) 14 tapes they chose, and they fought us on every other tape," notes Mr. Price.
According to Mr. Price, the whole prosecution case broke down on one point -- the value of Medinah's mineral exploration property in Chile. "They (the government) pooh-bahhed it as just a hole in the ground not worth a piece of ####. At the end of the day, the jury said, 'Wait a minute, this is a real property. They (Medinah) spent $15-million on it,'" says the promoter.
"It was their (Mr. Schlien and Mr. Jones) credibility versus the property."
Mr. Price says that while prosecutor Mr. Hong repeatedly tried to dredge up the promoter's unflattering baggage, especially the Cumo Resources case, now more than 15 years old, the judge refused to allow this into evidence. "She said very clearly that unless I presented myself as a golden-haired boy who never even had a ticket for jaywalking across the street" the government could not introduce this as rebuttal evidence.
FBI TESTIMONY ON SCHLIEN AND JONES
Both Mr. Price and his lawyer Mr. Donnelly confirmed that a significant part of the defence case hinged on attacking the government's deal with promoters Mr. Schlien and Mr. Jones, the controversial promoters who lured scores of Bermuda Short defendants into the multi-indictment sting.
The jury was told that neither have been charged to date, almost five years after they signed plea agreements in a penny stock criminal case, and they have only paid half their fines.
The following is a brief excerpt of cross-examination of the FBI undercover agent on Jan. 29.
"The (1999) plea agreement which they signed also stated in there they would pay a $1-million fine?" Mr. Donnelly asked the FBI undercover agent in cross-examination.
"No, I believe my understanding is that the fine is a total of $3-million, a million and a half for each of them," replied the FBI agent.
"Since they have been out of custody and signed the plea agreement five years ago now, they both have not paid the full amount?" asked the defence lawyer.
"I understand half was paid when they signed the plea agreement and the remaining half would get paid when they get sentenced. So, they have each paid $750,000," replied the FBI agent.
In further questioning, the FBI agent also confirmed that both promoters live in homes worth more than $1-million, and launched a new business venture after the Operation Bermuda Short arrests in August, 2002.
"Since the operation itself and since they pled guilty, Mr. Jones and Mr. Schlien have actually formed a business known as Financial Fraud Recovery. Isn't that your understanding?" asked the defence lawyer.
"Yes, it is," replied the FBI agent.
"Financial Fraud Recovery, one of the things they advertise themselves as, they gained expertise while working with the United States Government. Isn't that how they advertise themselves?" asked the defence lawyer.
"I think that's one of the advertisement parts, yes," replied the FBI agent.
"As part of their website and part of their advertising, they tout themselves as gaining expertise in the field, if you will, by working with and in conjunction with the United States Government. Isn't that true?" asked the defence lawyer.
"It's my understanding, yes, as part of their advertisement they have advised theye have co-operated with the government," replied the undercover FBI agent.
(Readers wishing previous details on Mr. Price's Bermuda Short saga may refer to Street Wires since August, 2002, under the U.S. symbol MDMN. Details of one Schlien-Jones case, Sky Scientific, are noted in a Street Wire dated Nov. 17, 1999, under the Canadian symbol VSE.)
© 2004 Canjex Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
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