A Russian company that went public on the OTC Bulletin Board last year with the help of Vancouver promoters has evolved into a classic pump-and-dump stock scheme.
Ukragro Corp., which claimed to be setting up a chain of health spas in Russia, has changed its name to Amarok Resources Inc., adopted the sadly ironic ticker symbol AMOK, and optioned a well-worn Nevada mineral property from a TSX Venture Exchange company.
With the help of a U.S. newsletter writer who blithely predicts the stock could reach $30 per share, Amarok's share price has jumped from zero to a high of $2.54 US in less than a month. It has since pulled back to $1.98, but even at that price the company's total stock market value is nearly $300 million US.
This is a totally irrational valuation. Public investors are bound to get hurt. The whole scene is like watching a train crash in slow motion. Sadly, regulators in Canada and the United States appear unable, or unwilling, to intervene.
Last July, I described how securities lawyer Faiyaz Dean helped a dozen fledgling companies run by Russian and Ukrainian nationals go public on bulletin board in the United States.
I noted that all these companies had goofy business premises, negligible capital, and directors and officers who appear unqualified to run public companies. This suggested to me that the real game is to create shell companies that are tightly controlled and easily manipulated, making them perfect vehicles for future promotions.
One of the goofiest was Ukragro. The company had no revenues and its total assets were only $100, making it difficult to believe this was an earnest business endeavour.
The company's president and sole shareholder was said to be a Maria Yahodka, a 79-year-old massage therapist from Zhitomir, Russia. This was clearly a ruse. Other people were pulling the strings, but who were they?
I was able to link Ukragro and several of Dean's other IPO clients to former Surrey security guard Andriy Protskiv and to several other Russian nationals, most notably Sergei Stetsenko, who has been behind many controversial Vancouver stock deals.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved Ukragro's registration statement in January 2009. By January this year, there was no discernible progress in the spa business. At that point, Calgary promoter Ron Ruskowsky took over as president and controlling shareholder.
Ruskowsky is the son of Harry Ruskowsky, longtime president of Trio Gold Corp., a TSX Venture Exchange company based in Calgary. Ron Ruskowsky works out of Trio's office, and not long ago was listed as Trio's investor relations contact.
After becoming president, Ruskowsky changed Ukragro's name to Amarok Resources and acquired an option on a Nevada mineral property belonging to Trio.
The property, called Rodeo Creek, is located in the northern portion of the Carlin Gold Trend, a prolific gold mining area. This makes the property promotable, but not necessarily economic.
Trio acquired the property more than two decades ago. Since then, the company has optioned the claims to several different mining companies and poked many holes. But as the company conceded in a filing last month, it "has not yet been able to identify any known body of commercial-grade mineralization on the property."
This hasn't deterred Jarret Wollstein, editor of the so-called Intelligent Investment Report: "Wow! This is the biggest money-making opportunity I've seen in years ... and if you miss it, you'll be kicking yourself for years!" he enthused in his newsletter.
"Using Carlin Trend averages ... Amarok's five prospective mine sites could hold 30 million ounces of gold or more! ... You can be certain that Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining are waiting at the door with cheque-books in hand."
"If exploration results prove up the potential of all five mines -- as much as 6 million ounces per mine -- the buyout price for AMOK could soar to $30 or more!"
We have seen this sort of hype from Wollstein before, most recently with Americas Energy Corp., another made-in-Vancouver bulletin board promotion. Wollstein boasts that this stock soared to a high of $5.59, but he doesn't mention that it has since traded as low as $2.29 and, without a shred of doubt, will soon be trading at pennies.
The disclaimer at the bottom of his newsletter reveals that a private company named Benchmark Media Ltd., which owns 1.5 million Amarok shares, paid $130,000 to distribute the report, of which Wollstein received $25,000.
I wanted to ask Ron Ruskowsky whether he's aware of Wollstein's report, whether he knows who's behind Benchmark Media, whether he approves of the report, and if he doesn't, whether he's going to publicly repudiate it.
I also wanted to ask him who was behind Ukragro when he acquired control of the company. Did he deal with the 79-year-old massage therapist from Russia, or some other, undisclosed person?
I also wanted to ask his father, Harry Ruskowsky, why Trio Gold, which is listed on the supposedly more respectable Venture exchange, would get into bed with a ratty bulletin board company like Amarok.
Alas, neither returned my phone calls.
dbaines@vancouversun.com