Our warmest congratulations go out to Daniele McCluskey, who on September 2nd and September 3rd sold 100,000 shares of Alamos Gold that she held for gross proceeds of one million and forty-one thousand four hundred and eighty three dollars.
As we can see from the chart, the timing of the trade was excellent, coinciding as it did with the 52 week high in AGI.to. It came just before the news on September 23rd that AGI.to was buying two Turkey assets from Teck/Fronteer that made the stock trade rather soft. It also came before the October 8th production update from AGI.to that disappointed the market and has seen the stock drop from $10.25 to its current $9.50. So great timed trade, Daniele, kudos to you! Darnit, I wish I knew how these people could time tops so well.....
Oh yeah, nearly forgot: By way of a totally unrelated fact, Daniele McCluskey is the wife of Alamos CEO, John McCluskey.
And you'd be smiling, too. John McCluskey (for it is he)
Hey, remember that Countrywide dude Angelo Godzilla or whatever his name was? Remember how he sold great big chunks of his own stock in those heady days before the financial crisis? Remember how his sycophants would justify this very suspicious insider selling by telling us how Godzilla was this successful dude and deserved the fruits of his labours and all that jazz? Then remember what happened to his company? And then all that nuisance about trials for fraud, and jailtime, and angry shareholders that had lost the lot? Yeah I remember all that, too, which is why John McCluskey over at Alamos Gold (AGI.to) has got my attention right now.
Y'see, McCluskey isn't just selling a few shares to raise a bit of moolah in order to supplement his meagre $500,000 annual pay package, he's on his own little non-stop selling spree and has been at it all year. Here's a paste-out of all his insider transactions so far in 2009.
1363933 2008-12-29 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10-1,0008.8440 542,400 disposition in the public market
1363936 2008-12-29 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -9,000 8.8630 533,400 disposition in the public market
1363937 2008-12-31 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -10,000 8.6390 523,400 disposition in the public market
1363938 2009-01-06 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -5,000 7.4380 518,400 disposition in the public market
1363939 2009-01-08 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -1,400 7.8500 517,000 disposition in the public market
1363940 2009-01-09 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -8,600 7.9230 508,400 disposition in the public market
1363941 2009-01-15 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -100 8.1020 508,300 disposition in the public market
1363943 2009-01-15 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -4,900 8.1120 503,400 disposition in the public market
1363944 2009-01-16 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -5,000 8.3000 498,400 disposition in the public market
1363947 2009-01-19 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -2,500 8.4500 495,900 disposition in the public market
1363950 2009-01-20 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -2,500 8.6000 493,400 disposition in the public market
1363967 2009-01-22 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -100 8.5400 493,300 disposition in the publicmarket
1363969 2009-01-23 2009-01-26 Direct Ownership : 10 -4,900 8.5100 488,400 disposition in the public market
1439330 2009-04-13 2009-06-13 Direct Ownership : 10 -100 8.4900 488,300 disposition in the public market
1439331 2009-04-27 2009-06-13 Direct Ownership : 10 -1,800 8.4900 486,500 disposition in the public market
1439332 2009-05-28 2009-06-13 Direct Ownership : 10 -2,000 9.7510 484,500 disposition in the public market
1439333 2009-05-29 2009-06-13 Direct Ownership : 10 -3,000 9.8600 481,500 disposition in the public market
1444655 2009-06-22 2009-06-25 Direct Ownership : 51 - Exercise of options +200,000 2.2500 681,500
1444656 2009-06-24 2009-06-25 Direct Ownership : 10 -100 9.7820 681,400 disposition in the public market
1444657 2009-06-24 2009-06-25 Direct Ownership : 10 -100 9.7800 681,300 disposition in the public market
1444658 2009-06-24 2009-06-25 Direct Ownership : 10 -14,800 9.7720 666,500 disposition in the public market
1449427 2009-06-25 2009-07-06 Direct Ownership : 10 -35,000 9.7160 631,500 disposition in the public market
1449429 2009-07-02 2009-07-06 Direct Ownership : 10 -26,000 9.7750 605,500 disposition in the public market
1449431 2009-07-03 2009-07-06 Direct Ownership : 10 -24,000 9.8000 581,500 disposition in the public market
1458403 2009-07-17 2009-07-24 Direct Ownership : 10 -300 10.0230 581,200 disposition in the public market
1458404 2009-07-17 2009-07-24 Direct Ownership : 10 -74,700 9.8700 506,500 disposition in the public market
1458405 2009-07-20 2009-07-24 Direct Ownership : 10 -25,000 10.3010 481,500 disposition in the public market
1458406 2009-07-21 2009-07-24 Direct Ownership : 10 -3,300 10.2300 478,200 disposition in the public market
I haven't missed out any transactions here, by the way. Apart from the one time when McCluskey topped up his dwindling holdings by exercising a bunch of $2.25 options (to sell at 9 and 10...nice work if you can get it, huh?) all he's done is sell, sell, sell. Makes you wonder if he's had time to do any actual work, doesn't it?
So far this year (according to my Casio, at least) McCluskey has put a gross value of two million, five hundred and thirty-one thousand, three hundred and forty dollars and fifty cents ($2,531,340.50) into his back pocket by selling shares to a largely unsuspecting market. Now I dunno 'bout you but putting it as mildly as possible that does seem a little excessive for the CEO of a junior gold play, especially for a guy who pulled down $500,000 as his salary last year and another 200k in bonuses. So if you happen to bump into John McCluskey, ask him why he's so keen on selling out right now. And while you're at it, ask him what he's spending the large cash on because he clearly sees there are better places to invest his money than his own company.
After a couple of hours reading reports, PRs, blogs and things I'm feeling a little more up to speed on the week past (interesting uplift in financing action, eg PAAS, CGK.v, DMM.to, OSK.to, Argentine soybean forecast just dumped 7MMT to 42.5MMT the FCC.to PCU white knight deal is only 10% higher than the one dismissed out of hand in December etc etc etc)
However, I got a kick out of this report by Andy Hoffman in Canada's Globe&Mail dated 28th Jan that picked up on this humble scribe's musings of Jan 27th and made the CEO of Alamos Gold (AGI.to), John McCluskey, squirm like the veritable worm. Hoffman did a good job of getting McCluskey to say silly things concerning his blatant insider trading that came just days before a significant PR that dumped the company stock price. Hoffman's piece is subscriber-only, but here's an excerpt from the note:
"The chief executive officer of Alamos Gold Inc. sold 60,000 company shares in the month before unveiling a $75-million bought deal financing, according to insider trading data filed with securities regulators, but he denies he sold the stock with any knowledge of the pending financing.
In a series of transactions beginning Dec. 22 and culminating on Jan. 23, John McCluskey sold shares of the gold producer for prices ranging between $7.43 and $8.86.
Among the trades was the sale of 4,900 Alamos shares for $8.51 on Friday. Yesterday, Alamos announced the financing that will see the Toronto company issue 9.4 million shares at $8 each. The stock fell 6.4 per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In an interview, Mr. McCluskey said that while investment bankers had been pitching Alamos to do an equity financing for more than a month, he only decided to give the go-ahead for the offering on Sunday night.
Until that decision was made, Mr. McCluskey said he had not been planning to issue shares in the company, which produces about 150,000 ounces of gold a year at its Mulatos mine in Sonora state, Mexico.
"If you think that I would sell off all my stock ahead of a financing with the full knowledge I was about to do a financing, you must think I'm crazy. Frankly, that would be illegal. That would be a violation of securities laws," he said."
Isn't it amazing that McCluskey thinks we're the freakin' idiot crazies to even suspect his motives? Isn't it cool to note that he thinks we need informing that his actions may have been construed as illegal? Isn't it a marvel that he gets his arm twisted by a firm of investment bankers on a Sunday?
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
The plain fact is that McCluskey got the light shone on him (by this very blog and then G&M) doing the same kind of bullshit shareholder skimming that half the stocks in Canada do. And as this note on the "conviction" of an ex-Agnico Veep done for insider trading points out, there has only been one jail sentence (for a measly 45 days) for insider dealings passed in Canada since the millenium started. That just goes to show how mind-numbingly toothless the OSC really is as the guardian of one of the world's most corrupt and cronyist stock markets.
As for the pathetic caught-with-pants-down McCluskey, add his attempt at covering his tracks to the previously demonstrated deception. Just another reason to avoid him and his overpriced company.
As we can see from the chart, the timing of the trade was excellent, coinciding as it did with the 52 week high in AGI.to. It came just before the news on September 23rd that AGI.to was buying two Turkey assets from Teck/Fronteer that made the stock trade rather soft. It also came before the October 8th production update from AGI.to that disappointed the market and has seen the stock drop from $10.25 to its current $9.50. So great timed trade, Daniele, kudos to you! Darnit, I wish I knew how these people could time tops so well.....
