News Release

Vancouver – A British Columbia Securities Commission panel has permanently banned Michael Kyaw Myint Hua Hu from the province’s securities markets, and fined him $1.5 million for engaging in illegal insider trading and making false and misleading statements to investigators.

In July 2011, a BCSC panel found that Hu, while a director and chairman of Maple Leaf Reforestation Inc., bought shares in the company while knowing undisclosed material information about a biodiesel project (known as the Xinjiang project) that Maple Leaf was negotiating in China.

The panel also found that Hu made false and misleading statements to commission staff when he denied knowing the individual who held the online brokerage account that Hu used to make the purchases.

“Hu’s deliberate decision to trade on undisclosed material information, and to conceal that trading by using the account of a third party who would not be easily connected to him, shows a calculated contempt for the integrity of securities markets,” the panel said in making its sanctions decision.  “His acting in any capacity in connection with our markets would pose a serious risk to those markets.”

The $1.5 million administrative penalty includes $1 million for Hu’s illegal insider trading, and $500,000 for misleading BCSC investigators and his misconduct as a whole.

In addition to the fines, Hu is permanently prohibited, with limited exceptions, from purchasing securities or exchange contracts and acting as a director or officer of any issuer. He must also resign, with limited exceptions, any position he holds as a director or officer of any issuer.

Hu is also permanently banned from becoming or acting as a registrant, investment fund manager, or promoter; he is permanently prohibited from acting in a management or consultative capacity in connection with the securities market; and he is permanently banned from investor relations activities.

The B.C. Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities within the province. You may view the decision on our website, www.bcsc.bc.ca, by typing Michael Kyaw Myint Hua Hu or 2011 BCSECCOM 514  in the search box.  Information regarding disciplinary proceedings can be found in the Enforcement section of the BCSC website.

Please visit the Canadian Securities Administrators’ Disciplined Persons List for information relating to persons disciplined by provincial securities regulators, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Mutual Fund Dealers Association (MFDA).

If you have questions, contact Richard Gilhooley, media relations, 604-899-6713. For public inquiries, call 604 899 6854 or 1 800 373 6393 (toll free).

Learn how to protect yourself and become a more informed investor at www.investright.org