News Release

Released: 03/21/00 Contact: Michael Bernard
899-6500 or
(BC only) 1-800-373-6393

Vancouver – A British Columbia Securities Commission panel has banned Gary Stanhiser from the B.C. securities market for the rest of his life, given him a $100,000 administrative penalty and required him to pay most of the costs of the commission hearing into an investment fraud he perpetrated.

Stanhiser, a former pastor with the Seventh Day Adventist Church, masterminded an offshore investment scam in which 300 investors lost at least $11 million. Many of the investors were church members in B.C. and California.

The panel also imposed sanctions against Del and Linda Knowlton, who helped Stanhiser operate Excel Asset Management Inc. and a number of other associated companies created to bilk investors. Del Knowlton was banned from the B.C. securities market for 10 years, given a $20,000 administrative penalty and ordered to pay some of the hearing costs. His wife Linda was given as five year trading ban, a $5,000 administrative penalty and ordered to pay some hearing costs.

In its earlier decision, (see NR99-26), the panel said Stanhiser set up Excel Asset and a group of offshore companies and trusts that were ultimately controlled by him. Client representatives of Excel Asset, including the Knowltons, raised money from clients between 1995-97. The money was then pooled into accounts at Cannaccord Capital Corp. in the name Stanhiser, Del Knowlton or one of a number of Excel companies. The panel found that Stanhiser perpetrated a fraud and together with the Knowltons traded in securities without registration and without a prospectus.

Copies of this decision are available on the commission's Web site (www.bcsc.bc.ca) or by contacting Communications Manager Michael Bernard. The B.C. Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities and exchange contracts within the province.