News Release

Released: November 5, 1997  Contact: Michael Watson  899-6500 or (BC only) 1-800-373-6393

Vancouver - The British Columbia Securities Commission announced today it has completed a settlement agreement with Veronika Hirsch and Sameh Magid in which Hirsch will pay nearly $140,000 and Magid $30,000 in penalties and costs.

In an announcement issued by the Commission, Executive Director Paul Bourque said the agreement includes an admission by both Hirsch and Magid that they acted against the public interest. They did so by making a false statement in a form they signed related to Hirsch’s 1996 purchase of warrants issued by Oliver Gold Corp. of Vancouver.

The distribution of the warrants was limited to residents of British Columbia. Hirsch, an Ontario resident then employed by AGF Management Inc., and Magid, an analyst with Salman Partners of Vancouver, both signed the form which showed Hirsch’s address as that of Magid’s Vancouver residence.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, reached after a year of investigation of the Hirsch investment, Hirsch and Magid will each pay the B.C. Securities Commission $20,000 towards the cost of the investigation. Magid also will pay a $10,000 administrative penalty.

Hirsch will pay a $20,000 administrative penalty and will pay the Commission an additional $99,573 that will go into the Commission’s Investor education Fund. The latter is the after-tax profit that Hirsch made on the purchase and sale of Oliver Gold warrants on which the gross profit was $165,173.

The agreement provides for Hirsch to make the payments in three installments, $20,000 by November 15, 1997 for costs; $70,000 by May 8, 1998, to cover the administrative penalty and a part of the additional penalty; and the balance by November 1, 1998.

The B.C. Securities Commission is an independent agency of the provincial government responsible for regulating trading in securities and exchange contracts.