DD Support Board and Research Team

[sunspotter]

The very excellent David Baines' November 15 column with both a Canadian and Chinese (FCCE) twist:

"Former Myanmar drug informant banned for life in B.C.

While chairman of company, Hu bought stock using online account of a woman he met through a dating service

By David Baines, Vancouver Sun Columnist November 15, 2011
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A B.C. Securities Commission hearing panel has banned Surrey business-man Michael Kyaw Myint Hua Hu from the B.C. securities market for life and fined him $1.5 million for illegal insider trading and lying to commission investigators.

"Hu's deliberate decision to trade on undisclosed material information, and to conceal that trading by using the account of a third party who would not be easily connected to him, shows a calculated contempt for the integrity of securities markets," the panel said in its decision, released Monday.

In July, the hearing panel - headed by BCSC vice-chair-man Brent Aitken - found that between Sept. 24 and Oct. 12, 2007, Hu bought nearly $1 million worth of shares of Maple Leaf Reforestation Inc., at prices ranging from 82 cents to $1.30.

Maple Leaf Reforestation is a Calgary-based company that trades on the TSX Venture Exchange. At the time, Hu served as the company's chair-man, and worked from Maple Leaf's office in Vancouver.

The panel found that, when Hu bought his shares, he was aware that the company was negotiating a memorandum of understanding to build a bio diesel plant in China.

The panel also found that Hu purchased the shares though a CIBC online brokerage account owned by a woman named Li Ping Tian, whom Hu had earlier met through a dating service.

When commission investigators questioned him, he denied knowing her and he denied making the trades. The panel found these statements were false and misleading.

Hu has been a controversial figure quite aside from his stock dealings. Several publications have linked him to drug trafficking and money laundering activities in Myanmar (Burma) during the 1990s.

Jane's Intelligence Review reported in November 1998 that Hu claimed to be a deputy minister of finance of the United Wa State Army, an insurgent group that the U.S. Department of State described as the world's largest armed narcotics trafficking organization.

AsiaWeek magazine reported that the United Wa State Army set up a firm called Kyone Yeom Group, with Hu as group chairman. The magazine said the firm was used to launder drug proceeds.

During an interview in February 2009, Hu told The Vancouver Sun that these allegations were false. On the contrary, he said he worked as a consultant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, helping to curb the proliferation of drugs.

He said the DEA helped him obtain political asylum in the United States in 2000. Two years later, he moved to Toronto, and then to Surrey, where he has lived for the past seven years.

In October 2008, The Vancouver Sun reported that he was a key player in Future Canada China Environment Ltd., a dubious company that traded on the OTC Bulletin Board in the U.S.

Future Canada had announced a tentative deal to merge with a Chinese horticulture company that purportedly had 680 employees and $41 million US in assets. The stock rocketed to $28.50 US, giving the company a total stock market value of $1.1 billion US.

In January 2009, the SEC issued a temporary cease-trade order, noting that "questions have arisen concerning recent trading activity in the company's stock [and] the accuracy and adequacy of publicly avail-able information regarding its potential acquisition."

The cease-trade order has expired, but the stock hasn't traded since.

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