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III. ALIAS POSTINGS BY AGORACOM MANAGEMENT AND REPRESENTATIVES
15. According to their website (www.agoracom.com), Agoracom “caters to the IR and marketing needs
of small and micro cap public companies trading on the TSX [and] TSX Venture…”. Agoracom offers
pricing models for its clients which incorporate a monthly fee and stock options equalling the
greater of 250,000 shares or 0.5% of a company’s fully diluted outstanding share total at current
prices.
16. Agoracom’s online content includes webcasts, podcasts, and blogs. Perusal of
www.agoracom.com is free and open to the public. Visitors are directed to client and non-client
issuer “hubs” created and maintained by Agoracom. Among the features available on a specific
company’s hub is a discussion forum, relating to the issuers’ securities.
17. Agoracom’s representatives serviced the client hubs by moderating their discussion
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forums and posting information and news to the forums. In order to post comments on the discussion
forums, users are required to create a username and provide an e-mail address.
18. Tsiolis and Kondakos required their representatives, as part of their daily
responsibilities, to post anonymously to some client forums using aliases. To post messages
anonymously, the representatives created fictitious usernames and posed as investors blending in
with other users, investors and interested persons. Representatives had between 40-50 aliases (some
had up to 200) and were required to make up to 2 posts per hub per day or risk having their pay
docked. On occasion, Agoracom staff conversed with themselves on the forums using different
aliases.
19. During the Material Time:
(a) more than 24,000 alias posts were created from within Agoracom on client and non-client hubs;
(b) more than 670 alias user names were created by representatives of Agoracom and used on client
and non-client hubs;
(c) alias posts originated from Tsiolis’ residence; and
(d) posts by Agoracom representatives, using their aliases, were occasionally promotional and
promoted purchasing and/or holding stock.
20. Neither the public users nor the majority of Agoracom’s clients were aware that
representatives of Agoracom were posting on their hubs using aliases. In some cases, Agoracom
reported the number of posts and shareholder inquiries answered by Agoracom’s representatives to
clients on a monthly basis, and failed to disclose that a portion of the posts and shareholder
inquiries were created by Agoracom’s own representatives. For certain clients, alias posts by
Agoracom’s representatives represented a significant proportion of the postings within the forum.
21. The Respondents also took steps to actively conceal the alias posting activity by its
representatives. In March 2009, when the business development representative, Scott Purkis,
revealed that he was an Agoracom representative posting with an alias, the Respondents posted
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an “Official Statement” stating that these actions were carried out by a single individual and that
Agoracom would be taking steps within next sixty (60) days to ensure that this would never happen
again. The message posted by the Respondents to the public in relation to Purkis’ alias postings
was misleading given that Tsiolis and Kondakos knew and instructed many representatives to create
and use multiple aliases to post on several of the client forums. In addition, Tsiolis and
Kondakos were aware that representatives continued to post using aliases after this Statement was
released.
22. The posting activity described above, mandated by the Respondents, was undertaken, in part,
to create an appearance of greater interest in the securities of some of Agoracom’s clients.
IV. INTERCEPTION OF PRIVATE MESSAGES
23. Another feature available on the Agoracom platform is a “private messaging” service which,
according to Agoracom’s web site, allows users to have “direct and private contact with other
Agoracom members.”
24. From July 2008 to February 2009, Kondakos intercepted private messages sent between public
users for the purpose of gathering information about reporting issuers and issuers, in which he was
personally invested.
25. Kondakos forwarded private messages to a personal friend who was not associated with Agoracom
and provided this individual with administrative access to the Agoracom website. This individual
also intercepted private messages between public users, and forwarded these private messages to
Kondakos.