Beacon's latest penny stock darling is another dubious Vancouver-connected company, Green Star Alternative Energy Inc., which trades on the "pink sheets" in the United States and purports to be developing wind farms in Serbia.
The brains behind this deal is Miodrag (Mike) Andric, a Serbian native who maintains a residence in West Vancouver. In the late 1990s, Andric worked as a bodyguard for Thai financial fugitive Rakesh Saxena, who had been charged with embezzling $88 million US from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce and had fled to Vancouver, where he has been fighting extradition ever since.
In April, Andric became chairman, president and CEO of Green Star, and promptly announced a series of "discussions" and "negotiations" with big-name companies in the wind-energy industry. Those announcements were promptly discredited by Carol Remond in her In the Money column for Dow Jones Newswires.
- On May 12, Green Star announced that its Serbian partner, Notos (co-founded by Andric) had met with executives from General Electric's GE Energy unit and suggested that GE Energy might work in partnership with Notos. Remond said GE Energy spokesman Daniel Nelson confirmed his company had met with Notos, but insisted those meetings "were part of a series of exploratory discussions" and "GE has no plans for further cooperation with Notos."
- On May 5, Green Star claimed it was in negotiations with Spain's Gamesa Corporacion Technologica, a leading manufacturer of wind turbines. Remond quoted Michael Peck, director of media relations for Gamesa North America, as saying, "We have no knowledge of Green Star and no knowledge of the information contained in the press release."
- On April 23, Green Star announced a "collaboration agreement" between it, Notos and Electrawinds. Remond said Marleen Vanhecke, in charge of public relations at Electrawinds, denied there was any agreement: "We just have a signed paper saying that we would speak with them. They have no deal with us."
When I contacted Andric in Serbia on Thursday, he insisted that Green Star's releases were accurate and he had the documentation to prove it. He may very well have documentary evidence, but I think it's clear these discussions and negotiations amount to little, if anything.
On June 4, Green Star hit another rough patch when the B.C. Securities Commission issued a cease-trade order against the company. The commission ruled that, even though the company is registered in Nevada and ostensibly based in San Diego, it has enough connections to Vancouver to make it a B.C. reporting issuer. That means it has to file regular financial statements, news releases and other documents with the commission, which it hasn't. (This cease-trade order has little impact on the company because it applies only to B.C. and the bulk of the trading occurs on the pink sheets, a U.S. over-the-counter market.)
Pink sheets had earlier placed its "skull and crossbones" warning on the webpage featuring Green Star due to the lack of information, but removed it after the company filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
That filing included financial statements showing that, as of Dec. 31, the company had only $3,310 in total assets.
Once again, none of this has deterred the touts at Beacon Equity Research. They have been spewing a steady stream of spam, describing Green Star as "an emerging leader" in the wind energy industry and the "ONLY company able to GENERATE and sell its own wind energy."
And on Thursday, right on cue, analyst Victor Sula weighed in with his familiar "speculative buy" recommendation with a price target of $5.70 per share. (The stock closed Thursday at $2.45, up 50 cents, which shows that this sort of carnival talk works.)
The report's disclaimer helpfully pointed out that Beacon had been paid $30,000 by a Green Star shareholder, Equity Alliance International, and 30,000 shares by a company called Onyx Consulting Group, to manage a "comprehensive investor awareness program," including Sula's report.
The disclaimer says Sula's report should be viewed as a "commercial advertisement" rather than bona fide investment advice. The people behind Equity Alliance and Onyx Consulting are not identified. Andric said he didn't know who was behind the program, and even tried to convince me that he wasn't even aware anybody was hyping his stock. Perhaps they don't have Internet service in Serbia.
In any event, Beacon's b.s. has had an unintended consequence. On Thursday, Cromwell Coulson, chairman and CEOP of Pink Sheets LLC, told me he will reinstitute the "skull and crossbones" warning on Green Star's stock due to the spam campaign. You can't say you haven't been warned.
dbaines@vancouversun.com
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