My "Letter" to AMK The following letter constitutes my opinion only. It is not a "hit" piece because I am basing my opinion on things that have become public knowledge through various news releases by TUO and AMK. Do your own DD and decide if I'm out of line. I am currently a shareholder of Teuton Resources and have been a shareholder of AMK in the past, so there's my full disclosure.
Speaking for myself, I don't want TUO to settle its case against AMK on the terms proposed just to get drills spinning this year. Too much time and money has been invested in building a case, retaining counsel, conducting depositions and document review and my guess is that Dino has learned enough to go forward. And, frankly, if you haven't earned in, you're in violation of the option agreement. If that proves to be the case, and if deceptive practices were used to obfuscate the true numbers, you should walk away empty handed.
Last year, I'd have settled, if I were Dino. Now it's way too late.
If the allegations of Dino Cremonese are accurate, AMK management will have a lot more to worry about than just losing the 51 percent of Treaty Creek, because if there was willful destruction of records or willful assignment of charges for helicopter flights to properties other than Treaty Creek to Teuton -- and I'm not accusing anyone of that, just raising the possibilitybased on a TUO news release -- it is possible that AMK's shareholders will have a cause of action against their own management civilly. And there's also the possibility of regulatory violations or worse.
Don't mistake past TUO bullboard grumbling by TUO shareholders over certain of our management decisions as weakness. Teuton's shareholders will step up to the plate and support our company financially should there ever be the need for, say, legal bills. You can't "wait us out" because bills are being incurred. Many shareholders are people of means.
I am not accusing your company of providing Teuton with bogus figures, but Dino Cremonese has raised that possibility in at least one of his press releases; he has also asked for drilling records and there have been allegations that an exhorbitant sum was paid to drill Treaty Creek, allegations of three times the normal rates.
If AMK has played by the rules, it should be a simple matter for you to prove it and move on, raise more money and finish the job at Treaty Creek. That is all shareholders in both companies have wanted you to do. Go on with the case; prove Dino is "lying" in his papers, as many of your shareholder-posters have alleged. You have a countersuit; prove your case.
In your proposed settlement letter, you seem to imply that you did not drill in 2010 because of the litigation; yet no legal case was brought until December of 2010! Now, if that was because you did not have title, I say WHY didn't you have title? If the numbers were being questioned back then, you could have easily provided the documentation to Teuton. Somebody is not being honest.
What is so sad is that management may have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.... that is, a great discovery is made by AMK and then they may risk losing it all. This is so sad.
It is not contested that stock compensation and salaries of a handful of managers was in excess of $450,000 a year, this despite calls for them to take less compensation (at least by shareholder-posters) in order to keep the company viable. That figure is taken from your own financial statements. I mention the compensation figures because these sums, to me, are very high in relation to the type of company AMK is; a company that, like Teuton, needs to preserve capital to avoid constant pps. Is AMK management good stewards of the company? Have they met their fiduciary responsibilities of balancing their interests with those of the shareholders?
There was nothing but "love" between our two companies when the 2009 drill results were released. A few hundred thousand dollars more will probably show that Treaty Creek holds perhaps millions of ounces of gold; yet you folks wouldn't or couldn't follow up in 2010. Again, this is a tragedy. I'm not taking any pleasure in this at all.
I think you folks may have misjudged the resolve of Dino Cremonese. If I were Mr. Cremonese, I'd only entertain a new arrangement with AMK if the current management changes and different folks were running the company. And my offer would be much lower than the 51 percent demanded.
In conclusion, if you truly had earned in, you could have provided the necessary documents to prove your investment in the project. Were the helicopter records turned over in early 2011? Were the drilling records provided at any time? The failure to wrap things up at Treaty Creek have hurt both companies, AMK more than Teuton.
In my opinion, things have gone too far to drop the case. I'm sure Teuton has hired experts to go over the documents supplied; perhaps a forensic accountant, pricey counsel; there's now too much at stake and perhaps things have been said about Dino by you folks that he can't abide or forget about and now he feels compelled to prove that statements made by AMK in their press releases about him personally -- or the company -- are not true.
I, for one, want a judge or jury to tell the shareholders of AMK and TUO who has "clean hands" in this controversy.
RR