2.1 Hogan resides in the City of Burnaby, in the Province of British Columbia, Canada.
2.2 On April 13, 1998, Hogan opened a U.S. trading account with TD-Waterhouse (the “TD-W US Account”). He also holds a Canadian trading account with TD-Waterhouse (the “TD-W Cdn. Account”).
2.3 Hogan also holds a chequing account with the Toronto-Dominion Bank situated in the City of Burnaby, Province of British Columbia (the “Bank Account”).

General Information About the Internet

2.4 The internet is an international network of computers that communicate with each other according to certain protocols. Through the internet, certain companies provide their clients with several means by which they can communicate with other internet users (an “Internet Service Provider”). First, a client may have an account with that service which enables them to send and receive individual messages to other users through their accounts (an “email account”). Second, a service may establish an electronic bulletin board to which internet users may post messages which can be read by anyone who reads the messages on the bulletin board.

2.5 Businesses and people may secure names called “Domain Names”. These names often refer to an Internet Service Provider, a business, or an individual.

The Excite Internet Account

2.6 Hogan’s father, with whom Hogan resides, subscribes to a service provided by At Home Corporation, doing business as Excite@Home, an Internet Service Provider, by which Hogan had obtained access to the internet.
2.7 Excite@Home provides its subscribers with email accounts and assigns Domain Names to these accounts, commonly known as an “email addresses”.
2.8 Excite@Home assigned an email account to Hogan bearing the email address jhogan007@home.com.

The Yahoo! Bulletin Board Service

2.9 Yahoo! Inc. (“Yahoo!”), doing business in Santa Clara, State of California, USA, provides information gathering and compilation services to the general public through the internet.
2.10 Yahoo! operates bulletin boards dedicated to posting news related to finance and investing topics. It requires its subscribers to choose and use a unique identifier to identify the messages that are placed on the bulletin boards. A subscriber may obtain multiple electronic identities to use on the bulletin boards.
2.11 Prior to the times material to this Notice of Hearing, Hogan, using the email address jhogan007@home.com created four screen names through the Yahoo! bulletin board service: bargain_picker, jj_2000_90210, mike2000_90210, stockboy2002.

The Hotmail Account

2.12 Microsoft Corp., a company doing business in the State of Washington, USA, provides a free email service commonly referred to as Hotmail. Hogan subscribed to Hotmail and obtained an email account bearing the address jhogan007@hotmail.com.
2.13 Using the jhogan007@hotmail.com email address, Hogan created five Yahoo bulletin board screen names using the same method described above: jhogan76, b2b_internetplays, ron_thomas_2001, s2000_240hp, goto2000_90210.

The Canadawire Account

2.14 Omnisoft Communications Corp. is an Internet Service Provider. It provides email accounts to its clients under the domain name “Canadawire.com”.
2.15 Through the services provided by Omnisoft Communications, also known as canadawire.com, Hogan obtained an email account bearing the account address jhogan@canadawire.com.
2.16 Using the jhogan@canadawire.com email address, Hogan created five Yahoo! bulletin board screen names using the same method described above: jhogan007, hyabasu2000, jhogan007_2000, b2b_internetplays.

The Silicon Investor Electronic Bulletin Board

2.17 go2net, Inc., a company doing business in Seattle, State of Washington, USA, operates, among other services, an electronic bulletin board service called “Silicon Investor”. On this bulletin board service, subscribers may obtain a screen name with which they can post messages on the bulletin board regarding information that they know about various companies, including companies traded on the Internet market currently referred to as the National Association of Securities Dealers Over the Counter Bulletin Board Market (the “NASDAQ OTC BB”).
2.18 Hogan, using the email account jhogan007@home.com obtained a screen name on Silicon Investor: acuransx_2000.

The Target Companies

2.19 RSI Systems, Inc. (“RSI”) is headquartered in Minneapolis, State of Minnesota, USA. The company’s securities are registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Its stocks were quoted on the exchange listing system known as the National Association of Securities Dealers Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board (the “NASD OTC-BB”) under the symbol RSIS. It manufactures, designs and markets video conferencing systems.
2.20 AM Communications, Inc. (“AM”), incorporated in the State of Delaware, USA, is headquartered in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. Its securities are registered with the SEC. Its stock is quoted on the NASDAQ-OTC BB under the symbol AMCM. It provides professional services to the cable television and broadband industry.
2.21 MicroTel International, Inc. (“MicroTel”), incorporated in the State of Delaware, USA, is headquartered in Ontario, State of California, USA. Its securities are registered with the SEC. Its stock is quoted on the NASDAQ OTC-BB under the symbol MCTL. It designs, manufactures, and markets electronic test equipment and instrumentation, components and subsystems, and circuits primarily for the telecommunications industry.
2.22 Astrocom Corporation (“Astrocom”), incorporated in the State of Minnesota, USA, is headquartered in Plymouth, State of Minnesota, USA. Its securities are registered with the SEC. Its stock is quoted on the NASDAQ OTC-BB under the symbol ATCC. It is engaged in the design, development, manufacture, assembly and sale of electronic products used for digital data communications, including wide area data, voice and video communication networks.
(collectively referred to as the “Targets”)

The Manipulation of RSI

2.23 Between August 18, 2000 and August 21, 2000, Hogan purchased 25,000 shares of RSI at an average cost of $0.34 per share, for a total cost of $8,617.21.
2.24 Between Monday, August 21, 2000 and Tuesday, August 22, 2000, Hogan posted 572 messages on hundreds of different Yahoo Finance message boards under the screen name s2000_240hp, stockboy2002, goto2000_90210 and ron_thomas_2001. The message made the following false statement (the “RSI Misrepresentation”):

RSI Systems was rumoured to be bought out from two potential bidders listed on the NASDAQ. RSI would be bought out for approximately $4.00 in cash and stock.

JDS Uniphase is reportedly acquiring all of Astrocom’s outstanding shares for $7.00 cash per share.

Astrocom is highly likely to be acquired due to consolidation of the Broadband, Wireless and Fibreoptic networking industry.