Replies to post #7692 on DD Support Board and Research Team

[1manband]

MMTE's history is even more tainted than just Overcash. Before Overcash was involved, it was Technigen, which to this day is one of the most notorious scams ever to come out of Western Canada. And that is saying something.

Technigen ran into serious regulatory trouble twice. The first time was in the 1980's, when they claimed they were in full production of an automated golf simulator. They claimed a massive deal to sell units into Japan, and predicted annual sales of close to $100 million. The stock, of course, flew up to around $15. Turns out the "deal" came not from Japan, but from a Panama shell company that was set up as a front. It was also disclosed that their claims of manufacturing and shipping the actual machines was bogus. Still one of my favorite stock scam stories was that when the Premier of Saskatchewan visited the factory (they received government money to set up the plant in Saskatchewan) they only had a few prototypes for show, but were claiming to in full production to meet the massive international demand. So, they placed the Premier and his party next to the phony assembly line, and ran the same prototypes past him. When the machines reached the end of the line, they picked them up, ran them around the building to the beginning of the line, and repeated the process. Again and again.

Eventually the BCSC stepped in, their claims of sales and production were proven to be bogus, and the stock price crashed. The President was banned from the B.C. market so he picked up and moved the listing to the US. In 1992-1993, he tried running the stock again, but it turns out that was market manipulation through matching trades and the like. They were charged by the SEC in 1998. Later several individuals involved with Technigen moved on and were central to the YBM Magnetix scam, which was one of the largest scams to ever come out of Eastern Canada.

About the only good thing to come from the Technigen scandal was that, in a way, it was the straw that broke the camel's back in Vancouver. It got the ball rolling on the need for stock market reform in Canada, and eventually led to most of the changes in Vancouver.