When on Monday morning Continental Gold (CNL.to) announced that Ari Sussman was stepping down as company president and giving the role to Exec Veep Meteo Restrepo, there was something about the NR which rang a bell but I couldn’t for the life of me think what it was. It bugged me all day, then yesterday Tuesday I forgot about it, but then suddenly this morning on waking up it came to me.
Check out this Colossus NR dated October 2011 that announced Ari Sussman was stepped down from his President and CEO role and giving the job to the company CFO, Claudio Mancuso. In it, here’s the piece when Sussman extols the virtues of Mr. Mancuso:
“Since joining Colossus, Claudio has demonstrated outstanding judgment
and the leadership skills required to manage Colossus through
construction and into production. Colossus will no doubt continue to
benefit as Claudio draws upon his experience from being involved in the
construction and operation of six gold mines located in three different
countries.”
Now that’s one helluva drumroll isn’t it? And especially when you consider that Mancuso was a well-known cokehead with a drug habit that compared reasonably to Keith Richards’ leisuretime activities. And also when you consider this drug addict ran CSI into the ground withing two years and lost its backers hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.
But back to today. This time Ari Sussman is only stepping down from his role as President, he’s staying as CEO (for the time being at least). But here’s what he has to say about the person taking over his role as prez of Continental Gold in this week’s NR:
“Since joining the Company in August 2015, Mateo’s energy, strong
leadership skills and key relationships have made a positive impact on
the Company,” commented Ari Sussman. “Based out of our Medellín office,
Mateo will work in direct partnership with Donald Gray, Chief Operating
Officer. I am confident that their complementary, yet distinct skill
sets will result in a seamless transition for the Company as we move
into project financing and construction once permitting is completed.
Lastly, I would like to thank Leon Teicher, Executive Chairman of the
Board, for his effort in helping to prepare Mateo for his new role.”
Since joining the company….leadership…into construction…it’s deja vu all over again. Now for sure I’m not saying that Señor Restrepo is a cocaine addict the same way that Mancuso was (is?). For all I know Señor Restrepo is a fine upstanding member of the community, has never ingested anything stronger than Earl Grey tea in his life and spends all his spare time helping old ladies across the road. What this is about is that slimeball Sussman and his M.O. of pulling the wool over the eyes of the mining world while filling his pockets with your money.