This is the story of a man who was heralded by the people of this now deceased company, a man who could do no wrong. When he told people to "buy," surely he was either holding or buying himself... or so people thought.
May this be a lesson to all the people out there. Never take anything a person tells you to do on these boards as gospel.
I present to you,
Herbacious: Exposed.......
Frank Candido's Golden Hope Mines Ltd. (GNH: $0.02) had some surprising news for investors today. On Feb. 10, over one month ago, Quebec's regulator, the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) filed charges against president Candido, his IR man Sasha Asgary and consultant Benjamin Sherman. The AMF says Mr. Candido and Mr. Asgary, with the help of Mr. Sherman, attempted to manipulate Golden Hope's stock price using unfair, abusive or fraudulent practices between October, 2007 and December, 2010. It specifically accuses the men of attempting to influence the stock price by improper means using investment-discussion websites. The AMF is seeking $25,000 in administrative penalties from each of Mr. Candido and Mr. Asgary, and $10,000 from Mr. Sherman, who voluntarily participated in AMF questioning. The AMF is also requesting that Mr. Candido and Mr. Asgary be banned from acting as directors or officers for 18 months. Golden Hope says its president is challenging the accusations, while Mr. Asgary has resigned.
The AMF evidence against Mr. Asgary seems quite complete. According to the AMF, Mr. Asgary made 61 posts on Agoracom and Stockhouse under the pseudonyms Mtl finest and Justice. In February, 2010, he even posted one message about calling Sasha (himself) late Saturday evening just to talk about the company's Bellechasse gold property in Quebec. Consultant Sherman posted 85 messages under the name Herbacious, telling investors several times that they would be sorry if they sold their shares. At the same time, Mr. Sherman admitted to the AMF that he sold his shares at prices ranging from 40 cents to 70 cents.
Golden Hope's stock had a turbulent 2010. It started climbing, from 10 cents that January, as soon as the company began drilling at its Bellechasse property, nicknamed The Beauce. Sightly drill cores were returning weekly, and Mr. Candido was more than pleased with all the visible gold he was seeing in those cores. The VG hype, coupled with several media mentions, propelled the stock to its all-time high of 98 cents that September. All the while, nary a single assay had returned, because of an assay lab delay that lasted more than four months. When the first round did return, later that September, the stock quickly dropped back down. It has been sliding pretty much ever since. Dissatisfied shareholder Earl Takefman was especially displeased with the AMF news. He put out his own press release today, pointing out that neither Mr. Candido nor Mr. Asgary saw fit to advise the company's board or its shareholders of this material and important information that occurred 1.5 months ago. He and nine other dissatisfied shareholders together own nine million Golden Hope shares, or 7 per cent of the company. The value of their stock has dropped to $180,000 from $2.7-million just over a year ago.
Full report of the Quebec securities commission's findings in regards to "Herbacious'" activities can be found here:
RULING
https://www.lautorite.qc.ca/files/pdf/bulletin/2015/vol12no16/vol12no16_2-2.pdf