News Release

Released: 09/26/01                                                          Contact:      Andrew Poon
                                                                                           (604) 899-6880 or
(BC only)   1-800-373-6393

Vancouver -- The B.C. Securities Commission has issued a permanent cease trade order against Sota Mining Group Ltd. and banned two of its executives from B.C.'s securities markets for 10 years.  

Sota president Ronald James Henry and Gordon Dix Jr., the company's vice president investor relations, are also prohibited from acting as directors or officers of any issuer or engaging in investor relations activities for 10 years. 

Henry and Dix were ordered to pay administrative penalties of $25,000 each.  The company and the two executives were also ordered to pay the costs of the hearing.  

In findings released in July, the commission found that Sota, Henry and Dix violated the Securities Act by selling securities without being registered and without filing a prospectus.  The commission also found that Henry and Dix gave advice to investors without being registered, also a violation of the Act.  

In making the orders, the commission noted that the respondents violated the “most fundamental elements of securities regulation – that those trading in securities, or advising others about trading in securities, be registered, and that investors be given appropriate disclosure about their investments.” 

“Here, the tragic element is that Henry and Sota targeted an especially vulnerable group – the elderly and unsophisticated," the commission said. "Most were over 80 and had no knowledge of investment matters." 

“Apparently, none of this mattered to Dix and Henry. Dix had no qualms about calling on these elderly investors at their homes in pursuit of his 50 per cent commission.” 

Evidence showed that Dix, a former vacuum cleaner salesman, went to investors' homes to sell the securities, which is prohibited under the Act. 

The commission said it was a mystery how Henry concluded that the long-term and high-risk investments Sota was selling were suitable for investors in their 80s.

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 Media Relations Officer Andrew Poon at (604) 899-6880.