News Release

Vancouver – The B.C. Securities Commission has ordered an investment adviser to pay $18,000 for failing to ensure his client was not trading on inside information when he carried out her trade order.

James Clark Macdonald, who was a registered investment adviser with Raymond James Ltd., breached the “Know your client and suitability” rules when he helped Catharine Wright, his sister, purchase 25,000 shares of Velvet Exploration Ltd., a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed company, on May 25, 2001.

Wright’s husband, Alwyn Christopher Dales Wright, was a director of Velvet when he directed her to buy the shares based on information that Velvet was in negotiations to be taken over by El Paso Corp. He learned of this yet-to-be publicly disclosed information through his position as an insider of Velvet.

Macdonald, a resident of North Vancouver, placed the order to buy the shares when he knew that his sister was in a special relationship with Velvet but he failed to ensure that she was not trading in breach of the Securities Act.

In a settlement with the commission in December 2002, Christopher Wright was barred from acting as a director or officer of any issuer for four years and ordered to pay the commission $34,000. Catharine Wright was also been banned from the securities market for four years subject to conditions and ordered to pay $24,000. As part of their settlement, the pair also had to turn over to the commission $107,937.50, a sum that represents the profits of the trading on inside information.

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 settlement 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.