Does Andy Hoffman read IKN?
However, I got a kick out of this report by Andy Hoffman in Canada’s Globe&Mail dated 28th Jan that picked up on this humble scribe’s musings of Jan 27th and made the CEO of Alamos Gold (AGI.to), John McCluskey, squirm like the veritable worm. Hoffman did a good job of getting McCluskey to say silly things concerning his blatant insider trading that came just days before a significant PR that dumped the company stock price. Hoffman’s piece is subscriber-only, but here’s an excerpt from the note:
“The chief executive officer of Alamos Gold Inc. sold 60,000 company shares in the month before unveiling a $75-million bought deal financing, according to insider trading data filed with securities regulators, but he denies he sold the stock with any knowledge of the pending financing.
In a series of transactions beginning Dec. 22 and culminating on Jan. 23, John McCluskey sold shares of the gold producer for prices ranging between $7.43 and $8.86.
Among the trades was the sale of 4,900 Alamos shares for $8.51 on Friday. Yesterday, Alamos announced the financing that will see the Toronto company issue 9.4 million shares at $8 each. The stock fell 6.4 per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In an interview, Mr. McCluskey said that while investment bankers had been pitching Alamos to do an equity financing for more than a month, he only decided to give the go-ahead for the offering on Sunday night.
“If you think that I would sell off all my stock ahead of a financing with the full knowledge I was about to do a financing, you must think I’m crazy. Frankly, that would be illegal. That would be a violation of securities laws,” he said.”
Isn’t it amazing that McCluskey thinks we’re the freakin’ idiot crazies to even suspect his motives? Isn’t it cool to note that he thinks we need informing that his actions may have been construed as illegal? Isn’t it a marvel that he gets his arm twisted by a firm of investment bankers on a Sunday?
The plain fact is that McCluskey got the light shone on him (by this very blog and then G&M) doing the same kind of bullshit shareholder skimming that half the stocks in Canada do. And as this note on the “conviction” of an ex-Agnico Veep done for insider trading points out, there has only been one jail sentence (for a measly 45 days) for insider dealings passed in Canada since the millenium started. That just goes to show how mind-numbingly toothless the OSC really is as the guardian of one of the world’s most corrupt and cronyist stock markets.
As for the pathetic caught-with-pants-down McCluskey, add his attempt at covering his tracks to the previously demonstrated deception. Just another reason to avoid him and his overpriced company.