Tbone's Scam List

[Lone Clone]

On rats, captains and sinking ships

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2010/02/on-rats-captains-and-sinking-ships.html

When a ship sinks we are told that the Captain of the vessel will be the last to leave, making sure that all hands are off and safe before they step off themselves. The good captain is perfectly willing to go down with the ship and suffer a watery grave, it's all to do with honour, morals and obligation. But we're also told that rats will get the hell off the boat as fast as they can because....well, because they're rats, aren't they?

So it was interesting to note what happened over at Copper Mesa (CUX.to) recently. On January 19th, the company announced it was being de-listed from the TSX after review (mostly due to the über-nasty way the company conducted itself in Ecuador when known as Ascendent..we've talked about this before).

 
 Copper Mesa Mining Corporation (CUX) 
 	As of February 7th, 2010 
 Filing Date 	Transaction Date 	Insider Name 	Ownership Type 	Securities 	Nature of transaction 	# or value acquired or disposed of 	Unit Price 
 Feb 06/10 	Jan 29/10 	Gill, Rana 	Direct Ownership 	Common Shares 	10 - Disposition in the public market 	-105,000 	$0.030 
 Feb 04/10 	Jan 18/10 	Gill, Rana 	Direct Ownership 	Common Shares 	10 - Disposition in the public market 	-222,840 	$0.075 
 

Yes indeed, on January 18th, a day before the de-listing announcement was made public on the 19th, company CFO Rana Gill dumped 222,840 shares at three times the current share price. The day afterwards, non-insider shareholders got to know what Gill already knew; that CUX was a sinking ship. The shares caved in but Rana Gill was already sold out by then.

Rana Gill: Captain of industry or rat? YOU BE THE JUDGE!

In the end, this post isn't really about an already dead company such as CUX and the scumballs that populate it. It's more about knowing who the hell you're investing with. If you're the type of person who watches a glossy presentation from a junior miner, thinks "Hey....gotta have some of these!" and hits the iPhone to buy some there and then, you're mad. The TSX and TSXV is laden with people who have the same moral and ethical standards as Rana Gill and if you can't be bothered to find out more about the prospective company before buying shares you'd be much better off giving your cash away to charity. At least that way it might do something positive to the world instead of feeding crooks in suits.