News Release

Released: September 21, 1993  Contact: Ron Messent  660-4800

The British Columbia Securities Commission today announced the orders to be made against Henry Huber, based on the Commission's previously released findings in the matter of Aatra Resources Ltd.

The Commission cancelled Huber's registration as a salesman under the Securities Act. It also ordered the removal of Huber's trading rights and prohibited him from becoming or acting as a director or officer of an issuer for a period of 10 years and ordered him to pay a portion of the costs of the hearing.

In its previous decision of June 4, 1993, the Commission made interim orders removing Huber's trading rights and suspending his registration under the Securities Act, pending this decision. At that time the Commission also made final orders against two other respondents in the proceedings, Victor Meunier and Joel Machtinger.

Meunier, was a promoter and de facto director of Aatra, a reporting issuer that completed an initial public offering of its shares and became listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange in August 1989. Machtinger was a director of Aatra. Meunier and Machtinger were both residents of Ontario.

Huber was, at that time, a partner with Continental Securities in Vancouver, the agent for Aatra's public offering. He was with Yorkton Securities Inc. from the time of its merger with Continental in September 1989 until the suspension of his registration in June.

The Commission found that Meunier was a key figure in a scheme to corner the market in Aatra shares. This scheme enabled Durham Securities Corporation Limited, a securities dealer in Toronto, to manipulate the price of Aatra shares on the Exchange, and sell them at inflated prices to investors in Ontario.

The Commission found that Huber must have known of the scheme to corner the market in Aatra shares and that he permitted or acquiesced in it, in contravention of Exchange rules. The Commission noted that Huber's willingness to assist Meunier was an essential element of the scheme. "Without this cooperation from Huber, Meunier could not have cornered the market, Durham could not have manipulated the price and the investors in Ontario would not have been sold Aatra shares at inflated prices and suffered the resulting and inevitable losses."

The Commission also found that, in addition to assisting Meunier in perpetrating the scheme, Huber engaged in improper insider trading, and made a substantial profit, by selling his 40,000 Aatra shares with knowledge that the distribution had collapsed.

A market manipulation has been described as "intentional or wilful conduct designed to deceive or defraud investors by controlling or artificially affecting the price of securities." Manipulations victimize investors, by inducing them to trade in securities at prices set by artificial, not market, forces, and erode public confidence in the fairness and efficiency of the securities market.

In order to protect investors and the securities market from this type of conduct, the Commission determined that Huber should no longer be permitted to participate in the market as a registrant and that he should be removed from participating in any way for a significant period.

The British Columbia Securities Commission is a provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities and exchange contracts.

Copies of the Commission's decision (6 pages) may be obtained in person at 1100 - 865 Hornby Street, Vancouver, British Columbia.