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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

The TSX Venture Exchange slipped a fraction to 791.20 Friday, ending the week down 9.78 points. Thane Ritchie has filed a preliminary prospectus to list his first capital pool shell, Global Investments Capital Corp. The shell plans to sell a $300,000 initial public offering at 10 cents through Canaccord Genuity Corp.

Global Investments has 5.5 million escrowed shares, which it sold at five cents last month. Mr. Ritchie is the largest escrow shareholder, with four million. He is also the chief executive officer and a director, but he is not the identified promoter of the shell. (We discuss the promoter below.) Mr. Ritchie, a former National Football League player and a former Chicago options trader, founded a hedge fund in 1997 called Ritchie Capital Management LLC. In 2005, the Chicago-based fund was valued at about $4-billion (U.S.).

In February, 2008, Ritchie Capital and Mr. Ritchie were investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of the New York State Attorney General over illegal late trading between January, 2001, and September, 2003. Ritchie Capital and Mr. Ritchie paid a $2.5-million penalty as settlement. They also disgorged $30-million of profits and paid $7.44-million in interest. Mr. Ritchie points out that late trading was a widely accepted practice and that plenty of popular mutual funds, brokers and investors were caught up in the investigation. Settlements totalled $4-billion. Neither Ritchie Capital nor Mr. Ritchie was restricted from trading.

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