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Vancouver investor relations specialist Ryan Anthony Gibson has been implicated in a boiler-room stock scheme that could have cost U.K. investors several million dollars but for the quick work of regulators.

According to a complaint filed by the B.C. Securities Commission on Tuesday, Gibson was the sole officer and director of a Delaware-registered company called Rocky Mountain Gold Mining Inc.

Although the company's shares were not registered for sale or listed on any exchange, Ryan arranged for a Panamanian company to sell 3.1 million Rocky Mountain shares to 166 U.K. residents for a total of $2.4 million.

The commission alleged that part of the proceeds were to be sent to a bank account in Vancouver in the name of RMG Mining Inc., a B.C.-registered company owned by Ryan. However, securities regulators intervened and arranged for the funds to be returned to investors.

The commission said the scheme amounted to an illegal distribution of securities, and ordered Ryan to appear before a hearing. A date has not yet been set.

Gibson is a small-time Howe Street stock promoter. He previously served as president and CEO of IR Investments Inc., which provides investor relations services for public companies.

In 2006, he became president of a U.S. junior company called CanAm Uranium Corp., which has uranium prospects bear Bancroft, Ont. It is based in Bellingham, Wash., and trades on the OTC Bulletin Board in the United States.

The company has been a flop. In November, it consolidated its shares on the basis of one new share for 200 old shares, and changed its name to CleanPath Resources Corp. Its future business plans are unclear.

From 2005 to 2006, Gibson served as a director of another U.S. bulletin board company called Vocalscape Networks Inc., which provided voice-over-Internet-protocol ("VoIP") solutions.

One of his co-directors was Lawrence Hartman of Lutz, Fla. This company has also been a flop.

Although it's not mentioned in the commission complaint, Gibson was a bit player in a much larger boiler room scheme that allegedly bilked 15,000 U.K. investors out of $70 million.

The scheme was run by Paul Gunter, 58, and his 25-year-old daughter Zibiah out of Tampa, Fla. They allegedly "hijacked" 54 nearly dead public companies, then sold shares in those companies to U.K. residents through boiler rooms in Spain.

In March, special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested the father-daughter team in Tampa after a joint investigation with the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. attorney's office and City of London police.

According to an affidavit filed by a U.S. Secret Service agent in connection with the arrests, the companies that were flogged through the boiler rooms included Rocky Mountain and Vocalscape.

The agent referred to large amounts of money and shares that were transferred to corporate entities in Costa Rica controlled by an alleged co-conspirator, variously identified as "conspirator 1" and "Larry Hart," a resident of Lutz. This is a thinly veiled reference to Larry Hartman, Gibson's co-director at Vocalscape.

On Monday, B.C. Lions coach Wally Buono announced the club had extended the contract of star receiver Paris Jackson. Behind him was a dark curtain, festooned with the logos of the club and joint-venture partner Aussie Soles Group Ltd.

I had to laugh.

Last spring, the CFL signed a licensing deal which allows Aussie Soles to place the CFL logo on its shoes (Croc-type knock-offs) in exchange for a royalty payment on every pair sold.

The Lions also signed a deal giving Aussie Soles advertising exposure in return for cash payments. (That's why the company logo was being displayed at this week's press conference.)

Several CFL all-stars were also touted as members of the Aussie Soles "team of athletes," including Lions offensive lineman Angus Reid, and receivers Geroy Simon and Jackson.

By the end of June, Aussie Soles shares, which trade on the bulletin board, had climbed to $2.55, giving the company a total stock market value of just under $100 million. I thought public investors were being played for suckers, and said so.

"If Aussie Soles follows the usual bulletin board pattern, it will turn into that familiar Peanuts football story -- the one where Lucy tees up the ball, then pulls it away just as Charlie Brown is about to kick it," I wrote at the time.

It's not clear whether the company has sold any shoes, but it doesn't look like it. The company hasn't filed any statements since May, and is now well past the filing deadline.

On Jan. 19, nearly all the company's officers and directors quit. The sole remaining director, founder Craig Taplin of Kelowna, is nowhere to be found. One of the departing directors, New York lawyer Joel Pensley, told me the company doesn't even have enough money to do an audit. That means delisting is imminent.

At this stage, delisting would be a blessing, like a mercy killing. In December, the stock was consolidated on the basis of one new share for 10 old shares. Even then, the stock is trading at only two cents per share.

The broker's licence of Trevor Scott Morrison, a former stockbroker at Union Securities in downtown Vancouver, has been revoked for life.

The Investment Industry Regulation Association of Canada, which is responsible for disciplining errant brokers, started an investigation into Morrison's conduct in December 2007.

Details of the conduct in question have never been disclosed. The investigation never got anywhere. He refused to talk to investigators and in September 2008, he left Union Securities and has not been employed in the brokerage industry since then.

The association cited him for failing to cooperate with its investigation, but he failed to appear at his hearing on Dec. 22, so the association permanently banned him and ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine and $11,000 in costs.

Although the association has the statutory power to pursue errant brokers after they leave the industry, it cannot legally force them to pay financial penalties, so collection is not likely.

This is not the first time Morrison has been in trouble. In 2004, while working at IPO Capital Corp. in Vancouver, he was found to have illegally distributed securities issued by a bulletin board company. He was suspended for the equivalent of one year and assessed $6,500 in fines and costs.

This is one person the industry won't miss.

dbaines@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Gibson was found innocent of the allegations of allowing this to happen, even the BCSC printed a retraction on a settlement he made because he could no longer afford his defence, of which they agreed and so did he, that he did not ALLOW this to happen, the most minute possible case was that Gibson ran the website. He didn't have anything to do with this, he was a 27 year old entrepreneur who was manipulated and lied to by a fraudulant older authoritative peer. The real criminals did this to 52 companies, and the only director pursued of all companies was this poor young man by the BCSC who had no money, made no money, and made sure the investor money went back by trying to co-operate. I am surprised this website still posts this article after the retraction and settlement because its obvious that Baines nor the host of this website ever talked to Gibson and just copied a hearing notice which was nothing but allegations with no substance.

10/13/09 - VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Oct. 13, 2009) -

This press release replaces the October 9, 2009 release (Release) that incorrectly stated that Mr. Ryan Anthony Gibson admitted that he allowed a Panamanian Company to sell shares of a company he controlled to investors in the United Kingdom. The Commission has removed the Release from its website and asks that any outlet that published incorrect information based on the Release to retract and correct that information.

The corrected press release appears below.

In a BCSC settlement agreement, Mr. Ryan Anthony Gibson admitted to contravening B.C. securities laws when he authorized, permitted or acquiesced to the trading and distribution of shares of Rocky Mountain Gold Mining, Inc. Neither Rocky Mountain nor Gibson was registered to trade securities.

Gibson, a former Vancouver resident, was the sole officer and director of Rocky Mountain when it granted a Panamanian company options to purchase its shares. Gibson, on behalf of Rocky Mountain, accepted that the Panamanian company could exercise its options by way of promissory note.

The Panamanian company then resold the Rocky Mountain shares to U.K. investors. Approximately $2.4 million of Rocky Mountain shares were purchased by 166 U.K. investors. These transactions constituted trading and a distribution of securities by Rocky Mountain contrary to sections 34 and 61 of the Securities Act.

Gibson, on behalf of Rocky Mountain, maintained a company website for investors to review, and responded to some investors' inquiries.

Under a BCSC order, Gibson is banned for seven years, except in limited circumstances, from trading and purchasing securities or exchange contracts. He is also banned for seven years from becoming or acting as a director or officer of an issuer, registrant or investment fund manager; acting as a registrant, investment fund manager, or promoter; acting in a management or consultative capacity in connection with the securities market; and engaging in investor relations activities.

Gibson also paid the BCSC $10,000 in settlement of this matter. There is no reasonable prospect of him paying a $50,000 fine that would otherwise be assessed in the public interest.

The B.C. Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities within the province. You may view the decision on our website www.bcsc.bc.ca by typing in the search box, Ryan Anthony Gibson or 2009 BCSECCOM 569. If you have questions, contact Ken Gracey, media relations, 604-899-6577.

Learn how to avoid investment fraud at the BCSC's investor education website: www.investright.org.