Karl Kottmeier, Appleton Exploration and another story of Canadian cover-ups, corruption and impunity

Once upon a time there was a student of history named Karl Kottmeier at UBC, Canada. While finishing up his studies, he was embroiled in a rather shady and unsavoury affair when C$8,000 was "borrowed without permission" by Kottmeier from a students' society of which he was treasurer. The graduate's body (overseeing the affair) voted that the matter should be passed on to the RCMP, but in the end Kottmeier escaped wider punishment as those around felt he had suffered enough.



As befits a graduate of history, he became an investment advisor for stocks (!) and such in Vancouver (certainly fits the part). After one turn and another, he found himself at the entrepreneurial end of the junior mining business and heading up a couple of microcap miners.



Late last year his company, Rockgate Capital (RGT.v), bought out Delta Explorations. One of Delta's assets was the Manalo Gold project in Mali, West Africa. Then early this year RGT managed to option out said property to Appleton Exploration (AEX.v), the deal involving AEX.v moving forward with a drill program on the site. As part of the deal, Kottmeier beame a director of AEX.v and found himself holding 155,000 shares of the company and cheapo options to boot.



All very nice. So now we cut to June 15th, 2009. This because AEX.v published a NR that screamed it had hit an intersection of 192g/t Au (6.17 ounces of gold per tonne) over 10 metres at the Manalo site. The share price rocketed from the 20c-or-so level to 60c and beyond, even though the NR was "rather vaguely worded"....and that's being generous.



So what did our hero and newly-minted director at AEX.v, Karl Kottmeier, do when he heard his new company had hit paydirt and the stock was rising fast Very easy; he sold all his shares.........

Jun 16/09 Jun 15/09 Kottmeier, Karl Eric Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -30,000 $0.300

Jun 16/09 Jun 15/09 Kottmeier, Karl Eric Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -22,000 $0.330

Jun 16/09 Jun 15/09 Kottmeier, Karl Eric Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -3,000 $0.335

Jun 16/09 Jun 15/09 Kottmeier, Karl Eric Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -15,000 $0.350

Jun 16/09 Jun 15/09 Kottmeier, Karl Eric Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -25,000 $0.350

Jun 16/09 Jun 15/09 Kottmeier, Karl Eric Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -10,000 $0.370

Jun 16/09 Jun 15/09 Kottmeier, Karl Eric Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -10,000 $0.400

Jun 16/09 Jun 15/09 Kottmeier, Karl Eric Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -20,000 $0.490

Jun 16/09 Jun 15/09 Kottmeier, Karl Eric Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -20,000 $0.540

....for the sum total of $59,610 and made himself a very nice profit. He then immedataely resigned from AEX.v on the very same day that his share sale happened. to be filed Why so? Because having had the Manalo property as part of Rockgate, he knew that the asset was a total piece of shit and that the press release from AEX.v was a made-for-greenhorns scam in true Vancouver bullshit style. So he took the money and ran. And sure enough, when the NR hit the wires yesterday to explain that the drill interception was less 10m at 192g/t and more one single metre that hit lucky on the same band that had been discovered previously the stock dropped like a stone.



There are many petty and not-so-petty thieves like Karl Kottmeier that populate the backwaters of Vancouver's capital markets and do what they want with total impunity. A guy with a track record of "borrowing" money from student societies while studying history....and then becomes a stockbroker? Who then becomes becomes head honcho of a junior miner? Gimme a freakin' break here!!! And the funniest thing is that there are always a whole bunch of idiots that throw their cash at a scamster operation such as this without doing the slightest bit of DD on the people or the companies. PT Barnum was right about one being born every minute.



As for Kottmeier, as usual expect nothing from the OSC or other Canadian regulatory bodies, spineless creatures that they are. But even worse, expect no word from the wider junior mining community, as the very people that should ostracize scum like Kottmeier will keep their lips buttoned tightly...for fear of being investigated themselves.



Canada: The world's most corrupt capital market, populated by thieves and funded by suckers.