Friday, February 12, 2010

Graham Harris: Another day, another Canadian ripoff

Graham Harris: Is it possible to shame the shameless?

Interesting to note the insider filings of ATW Gold (ATW.v) Chairman Graham Harris today:

10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -21,000 0.52 -10920
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -79,000 0.51 -40290
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -100,000 0.27 -27000
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -50,000 0.21 -10500
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -19,000 0.22 -4180
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -31,000 0.22 -6820
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -55,500 0.22 -12210
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -4,000 0.22 -880
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -40,000 0.18 -7200
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -82,000 0.18 -14760
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -13,000 0.17 -2210
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -100,000 0.165 -16500
10 - Acquisition or disposition in the public market -5,000 0.185 -925


The Harris guy has managed to dump nearly 600,000 shares on the market in the last five months and pocketed gross proceeds of $154,395, most of them a mile outside the normal disclosure period for insider transactions. But especially noteworthy are those first two sales (which aren't on the cad insider page, cos they only carry the last 10 transactions; to see the first two you need to go over to sedi dot ca) made on Sept 11th 2009, one week BEFORE his company released the news on its trainwreck mine in Australia that dumped the stock forever and ever amen.

Total impunity once again. The Chairman of the company, who knew the crap that was about to go down, dumps his stock before shareholders find out what's going on and can't be bothered to tell anyone for five months. For this the OSC will slap his wrist with the normal $1,000 fine (which he'll be able to pay in cash straight from his wallet when the time comes).

So let's check Harris's credentials: Oh looky! He's an ex-VP at the can of corn! What a surprise, the same house of education as like the other guy who jumped the ATW.v ship before anyone else got to hear the bad news, Luke Norman.

Meanwhile, let's check in on what arch-bullshit pumper Peter Grandich said about Graham Harris in February 2009:
"I’ve known Graham Harris, one of ATW’s Directors, for almost 20 years. He’s always been a straight shooter, particularly when he was in the financial arena, and finding a straight shooter in the financial arena is like finding a needle in a haystack. So I’ve always had confidence in his honesty."
Wow! Two assholes for the price of one!

Graham Harris is also the big honcho at Tribune Resources (TNR.f), a €0.52 stock over on the Frankfurt exchange. You have been warned, my Teutonic friends.