Want more proof??????Commission lifts Thermo Tech cease-trade order
https://www.yourlibrary.ca/community/richmondreview/archive/RR20000223/morenews.html
Martin van den Hemel, staff reporter
Disgruntled B.C. investors who were barred from trading their shares in a
Richmond waste conversion company received some good news Wednesday afternoon.
The British Columbia Securities Commission partially revoked a cease-trade order against Thermo Tech Technologies Inc. (trading symbol TTRIF), said Michael Bernard, the commission's communications manager. The cease-trade order was issued in July 1999 when the company failed to submit financial records to the commission, he said.
"We had some concerns about how the business is run."
Bernard explained that the commission received numerous calls from B.C. investors who were on the outside looking in as tens of millions of shares in the firm were being sold in the United States.
The decision was made to allow owners of shares purchased before the July 14 trading ban to sell their shares, he explained.
"We're not interested in standing in the way of those people."
Shares bought after July 14 were purchased illegally and will continue to be banned from trading, he noted.
Trading of Thermo Tech shares has jumped sharply in the last two weeks. After an average of three million shares were traded on a daily basis between Jan. 5 and Feb. 4, 2000 activity suddenly jumped.
More than 10 million shares were traded on Feb. 4, and on Monday, nearly 72 million shares changed hands.
The skyrocketing trading volume sparked a sharp increase in price shares.
With a 52-week low price of just three cents per share, Thermo Tech shares were selling for between 30 and 59 cents this week.
The Review received e-mail enquiries from apparent shareholders who were questioning the sudden interest in the firm.
The Thermo Tech bio conversion plant on Mitchell Island was gutted in July following a fire. The blaze caused more than $10 million damage.
In January, The Review reported that an insurance firm paid out millions of dollars in a settlement. Much of the money went to pay off liens placed against the building by contractors who claimed they hadn't been paid.
Despite the ban by the B.C. Securities Commission, shares in Thermo Tech are still actively traded through a U.S.-based bulletin board. Commission spokesperson Bernard explained that trading on the bulletin board is not monitored as it is in other stock exchanges. As a result, risk is often very high, with the commensurate possibility of huge returns.
When asked whether the securities commission is continuing to investigate Thermo Tech, Bernard said that although the commission's role is to protect investors, it can't investigate the legitimacy of a firm's technology.
"We can't comment on whether it is hype or real," Bernard said of Thermo Tech.
The commission is still waiting for Thermo Tech to submit its annual financial reports, he said.