Could it be that the SEC has included GDBX in its investigation into St George Metals, CMKM Diamonds and all their friends?Is that the hold up for us and the reason that William Haseltine the attorny for GDBX quit?
As you know HndtoHnd, Haseltine's St George Metals resignation was addressed to one of Jeff Turino's PCBM partners, Bruce Harlan. Haseltine was also involved with the ECNC/ECNI, PCBM/SRCI, CMKX players, who were associates of John Edwards.
Before WWCD/GBDX, Victor Casavant was the original owner of the shell MRDR that was sold off to Turino and became VWAY. Later on, Haseltine becomes involved with GBDX and Helen Bagley remained T/A. Helen was formerly T/A of PCBM/SRCI and CMKX.
Unfortunately, investigations involving so many players can be complicated and tedious.
St. George skewered by SEC revocation decision
2005-09-30 18:33 ET - Street Wire
Also Street Wire (U-*SEC) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Also Street Wire (U-CMKX) CMKM Diamonds Inc
by Lee M. Webb
St. George Metals Inc., a pink sheet shell revived last year in support of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) target Urban Casavant's CMKM Diamonds Inc. promotion, may soon be put to rest again. Administrative Law Judge Robert G. Mahony ordered St. George's stock registration revoked in an initial decision issued on Sept. 29.
As previously reported by Stockwatch, Nevada-incorporated St. George was dusted off last September, reportedly inking a multimillion-dollar deal with Mr. Casavant's massively diluted CMKM.
According to news releases issued by the non-reporting pink sheet companies, resuscitated St. George peeled off $10-million and 200 billion shares for a 5-per-cent stake in mineral claims, primarily located in Saskatchewan, purportedly controlled by CMKM. (All amounts are in U.S. dollars.)
Fantasy
News of the deal sent CMKM's large and excitable Internet following into a tizzy as they quickly worked obscure St. George into their wild fantasies about a secret "master plan" destined to transform Mr. Casavant's floundering pink sheet promotion into the most valuable mining conglomerate in the world.
The news also propelled St. George's share price from its rarely traded subpenny level to 75 cents per share as investors, including many of CMKM's faithful followers, piled into the stock as millions of shares changed hands in the days following the announcement.
St. George's rocketing share price was also worked into the CMKM fantasies as the company's faithful, if naive, Internet followers "did the math." Brooking no criticism, many of CMKM's cult-like followers assigned a staggering value based on the prevailing inflated market price to the 200 billion St. George shares purportedly issued in the deal.
According to the dubious logic of the CMKM fantasists, if a mere 5-per-cent stake in CMKM's mining claims was worth more than $100-billion, then their nascent mining giant was clearly worth $2-trillion or more. For many of the CMKM faithful, the St. George transaction merely confirmed what they had already determined by other, if equally dubious, means.
Many of CMKM's faithful followers, the "true longs," as they often call themselves, were evidently largely untroubled when Stockwatch reported on Sept. 16, 2004, that recently revived St. George was headquartered in the unlikely community of Vegreville, Alta.
They were apparently also unconcerned that Mr. Casavant reportedly told Dow Jones reporter Carol Remond that he really knew nothing at all about St. George.
As reported by Stockwatch, however, Mr. Casavant's brother Victor Casavant, a CMKM shareholder and former securities violator, lived in the small town of Vegreville. Moreover, Vicki Curran, another CMKM shareholder and Mr. Casavant's niece also lived in Vegreville and was St. George's investor relations spokesperson.
CMKM's devoted followers seemed equally untroubled when promised news releases that were supposed to identify St. George's board of directors and the source of the $10-million, among other things, failed to materialize. It is still far from clear whether any of that money actually changed hands.
As St. George remained silent and its share price went into a slide, CMKM's faithful followers moved on to other fantasies about massive diamond discoveries, gold deposits, uranium finds, oil rights and astronomical buyouts, among other things.
CMKM's cult-like followers, the so-called true longs, barely missed a beat when the SEC instituted administrative proceedings seeking to revoke the company's stock registration in March of this year.
Indeed, the SEC action was soon incorporated into new CMKM fantasies about painting the U.S. regulator into a corner, trapping nasty short sellers and forcing a staggering cash settlement from the conspirators on "the dark side," which included the SEC, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., hedge funds, market makers and others, according to the CMKM faithful.
Meanwhile, St. George finally stirred again.
On April 25, St. George announced that the board of directors, still unidentified, had appointed U.S. lawyer William B. Haseltine to the position of president, replacing another Vegreville player, Mark Giebelhaus.
The appointment of pink sheet experienced Mr. Haseltine, who boasted some SEC experience, was yet more fodder for some of the CMKM fantasists. They worked Mr. Haseltine, a touted securities lawyer with no obvious mining background, into secret master plan designed to trap short sellers.
While some of CMKM's devoted followers stitched St. George's new president into their patchwork and fluid imaginings, Mr. Haseltine issued a series of fluffy news releases about proposed multimillion-dollar deals involving other obscure mining properties.
Reality
On July 1, less than two weeks before issuing an initial decision ordering CMKM's stock registration revoked, the U.S. regulator instituted an administrative proceeding against St. George for failing to file required periodic reports.
The action against St. George was instituted after the SEC enforcement division contacted Mr. Haseltine and was informed that he was the company's only officer and director and, among other things, he knew nothing about the purported $10-million transaction with CMKM.
Mr. Haseltine, who also served as St. George's legal counsel, subsequently filed a very brief answer to the SEC order instituting administrative proceedings against the company.
In his one-page answer, Mr. Haseltine claimed that St. George had been dormant for the past two years and had neither conducted any business nor had any access to capital. He also said that the company was taking steps to pay its accountants to prepare the overdue SEC reports and expected to become current with its reporting obligations within two weeks.
St. George did not become current with its filings. Indeed, the company made no progress at all with respect to meeting its reporting obligations.
At a subsequent prehearing conference before Judge Mahony, the SEC was granted leave to file a motion for summary disposition of the case.
On Aug. 25, four days before the SEC filed its motion for summary revocation of St. George's stock registration, Mr. Haseltine pulled the plug, resigning his position as the company's lawyer and president.
St. George did not file an opposition brief to the SEC's Aug. 29 motion for summary disposition of the administrative proceeding.
On Sept. 29, Judge Mahony issued his initial decision ordering the revocation of St. George's stock registration.
"St. George Metals's actions were egregious and recurrent," Judge Mahony wrote in part. "St. George does not recognize the wrongfulness of its conduct and has acted with a high degree of scienter.
"For nearly a three-year period, it failed to file a total of 11 required periodic reports.
"Despite its claim that it was dormant and without access to capital the past two years, St. George Metals, starting in late 2004, issued press releases touting purported multimillion dollar deals it had entered, or planned to enter, all while it was out of compliance with the periodic reporting requirements.
"Thus, instead of current audited information, the investing public was forced to rely on self-serving statements."
Reviewing the Steadman factors, a guide to determining the appropriate sanction, Judge Mahony went on to conclude that there was a high probability that St. George would continue to violate the reporting requirements of federal securities laws.
"Viewing the Steadman factors in their entirety, I conclude that the only appropriate sanction for the protection of investors is revocation of the registration of each class of St. George Metals's securities," Judge Mahony wrote.
Barring the filing of a petition for review by lawyerless and headless St. George within 21 days, Judge Mahony's initial decision will become final with the entry of an SEC order of finality.
St. George may soon be permanently put to rest.
Meanwhile, CMKM's revocation order is under appeal and the fantasies and trading continue.
St. George managed to eke out a paltry trading volume of 35,300 shares and closed at one-100th of a penny in the final session of the week.
CMKM notched a far more robust volume of more than 1.6 billion shares and, as it has done for the past many months, also closed at a reported one-100th of a penny on Sept. 30, which may be high because NASD grey-sheet reporting only to four decimal places.
The saga continues.
Comments regarding this article may be sent to lwebb@stockwatch.com.
(More information regarding St. George is available in Stockwatch articles dated Sept. 16, 2004; July 1; and Sept 27, 2005. Further information regarding CMKM Diamonds and associated companies can be found in Stockwatch articles dated Oct. 21, 2003; June 22; Sept. 16 and 24; Oct. 1, 15 and 20, 2004; Feb. 11, 14, 18, 22 and 23; March 1, 3, 4, 7, 14, 15, 16 and 21; June 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 29 and 30; July 1, 4, 6, 12 and 13; Aug. 2, 5 and 9; and Sept. 7, 12 and 27, 2005.)
