News Release

Released: December 14, 1999 Contact: Michael Bernard
899-6500 or
(BC only) 1-800-373-6393

Vancouver – A B.C. Securities Commission panel has imposed a lifetime trading ban and a $100,000 fine on one man and a 15-year trading ban against another man after finding that they violated several securities laws in promoting and selling securities of EVC Resources Ltd.

Promising investors returns of up to 150 per cent, the two men sold shares in EVC Resources Inc., which claimed to have a proprietary method of extracting gold from mine tailings and complex ores. They sold the shares without being registered to do so and without providing investors with a prospectus or offering memorandum.

They also promised investors that the company would be listed on the former Vancouver Stock Exchange.

Investors were also offered, but never received, gold bullion that was to come from two sources: from gold processed at a plant using the EVC method and "old gold" bullion purportedly plundered from countries occupied by Japanese soldiers and gold former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos had supposedly deposited in a New York bank.

The panel banned Kenneth Arthur Erickson from trading, acting as a director or officer of any reporting issuer or engaging in investor relations activities for the rest of his life. He was also fined $100,000 and ordered to pay 80 per cent of the costs relating to his hearing.

"We find that Erickson showed a total disregard for the regulatory regime and the public investors it attempts to protect," the panel said, noting that he didn’t appear at the hearing to explain himself. "Erickson must be held to account and the public deserves to be protected from him."

The panel banned Maurice John Calf from trading, except in his own accounts, from acting as a director or officer and from engaging in investor relations for a total of 15 years. He was also ordered to pay 20 per cent of the hearing costs.

Calf, along with his family and associates lost $800,000 of the $1.2 million invested in EVC.

"There was no evidence indicating that any EVC investors received any money back," the panel said. "On the basis of the evidence, we found that EVC investors lost all their money, there is no reasonable prospect of them getting any money back and their loss is directly attributable to Erickson’s and Calf’s conduct."

While Calf cannot be faulted for losing his own money in EVC and Erickson’s schemes, the panel said, he was obliged to meet securities legislation requirements in dealing with other people’s money. He seriously prejudiced EVC investors by not doing so.

Copies of the decision can be found on the commission’s Web site (www.bcsc.bc.ca) or by contacting Communications Manager Michael Bernard.

The British Columbia Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities and exchange contracts within the province.