News Release

Vancouver – The B.C. Securities Commission has denied a former company director access to the securities markets for five years and ordered him to pay an administrative penalty of $10,000 for failing to file insider reports over a 26-month period.

Between September 1996 to October 1998, Robert Douglas McLean failed to file reports for 333 trades in the shares of Markatech Industries Corp., a company listed on the former Vancouver Stock Exchange (VSE). McLean became a director, and therefore an insider, of the company in November 1986 and remained an insider until he resigned as a director and officer in December 1999.

In a commission decision, it was revealed that McLean admitted that he bought 1.41-million shares and sold 1.88-million shares of Markatech during the 26-month period. McLean’s unreported trades represented more than 18 per cent of all the trading volume of Markatech’s shares on the VSE during that time period.

McLean traded the shares through his own account and accounts under the names of his mother and his former fiancée. Evidence showed that McLean had trading authority for those accounts and gave all the trading instructions during the period in question.

McLean admitted during the hearing that he personally used the account of his ex- fiancée for trading as a “market maker” for Markatech.

“We do not accept McLean’s excuse that he was unaware of the requirement to report the trades,” said the commission panel. “As an experienced businessman he could not have thought that he could avoid the obligation to report trading he was doing as a market maker merely by doing it through accounts in the names of others.”

In its decision, the panel also rejected McLean’s claims that he failed to file the reports because he did not have the records to complete them. The panel noted that he could have gone to the brokers to get the necessary information about trading in the accounts.

McLean filed the required reports on Jan. 31, 2003, the last working day before the commission hearing but he has yet to pay the required late filing fees of $1,300.

Under the decision, McLean is barred from being a director or officer of a reporting issuer for at least five years. He must also pay the late filing fees for the insider reports he failed to file along with costs related to the commission hearing.

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 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.