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by Mike Caswell

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has begun an administrative action to revoke the registration of UnionTown Energy Inc., a subpenny Vancouver pink sheets listing that once had a $557.7-million market capitalization. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The case is part of a routine procedure in which the SEC purges companies that have not filed financial statements in some time. What the SEC's action does not state is that in 2011 UnionTown went to a $2.60 high amidst a promotion that featured Vancouver's Patrick Smyth, paid tout sheets and a purported oil reserve estimate of 120 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The SEC's case comes three years after the brief UnionTown promotion, which mostly occurred over three months in 2011. Starting in March that year the stock quickly rose to $2.60 from around 90 cents with millions of shares trading daily. Much of the fuel for the promotion came from a 24,000-acre block in Wyoming that the company claimed to have acquired from a subsidiary of Talisman Energy Inc. The company said the property had an estimated reserve of 120 million boe, which would have been worth $12-billion with oil at $100. Apparently UnionTown was only required to pay $17-million over one year for a 75-per-cent interest in the property.

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