News Release

Released: 11/21/01 Contact: Andrew Poon
NR 01-60 604-899-6880 or
(BC & Alberta) 1-800-373-6393

Vancouver -- The British Columbia Securities Commission has permanently banned an Internet-based investment club, a related company and their principals from the B.C. capital markets.

In addition, Tri-West Investment Club, Haarlem Universal Corp. and those holding themselves out as Jason Kingsley, Mark Goldman, Alan Richards and Alex Haarlem were ordered to pay administrative penalties of $100,000 each. They were also ordered to pay up to $33,803 for costs related to the hearing.

The commission also imposed sanctions against John Byron -- a B.C. resident -- who had participated in the fraud by soliciting B.C. investors. The commission panel banned Byron from the B.C. capital markets for eight years, imposed an administrative penalty of $10,000 and ordered him to pay hearing costs of $8,000.

In its decision released in October, the commission found that the Tri-West investment program was a quintessential example of a prime bank instrument fraud. The panel had pointed out that these frauds claim to involve the purchase and sale of fully negotiable bank instruments of the top, or prime, world banks. In fact, neither the instruments, nor the markets on which they allegedly trade, exist.

“The internet has greatly facilitated the proliferation of prime bank instrument frauds throughout the world," said the panel.

"In this case, Tri-West, Haarlem Universal and the individuals behind them used the anonymity and the reach afforded by the internet to peddle their fraudulent investment scheme to anyone with access to their website, including investors in British Columbia. In doing so, they perpetrated a fraud on a massive scale."

At least 17 B.C. residents invested US$100,000 in Tri-West.

“Their conduct is so abusive that their continued presence in the capital markets would seriously impair investor confidence in those markets and, as a consequence, market integrity. Therefore, we consider it to be in the public interest to remove them from the capital markets permanently,” concluded the panel.

The B.C. Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities and exchange contracts within the province. Copies of the decision and orders can be viewed in the documents database of the commission’s website www.bcsc.bc.ca or by contacting Andrew Poon, Media Relations, 604-899-6880.