This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.

Here is a sample of this item:

by Mike Caswell

Geologist John Paterson has pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges in the Provincial Court of British Columbia that stemmed from a four-year scheme to inflate assay results from Southwestern Resources Corp.'s Boka project in China. He entered the plea Monday morning in an appearance before Judge Harbans Dhillon on what was supposed to be the first day of a lengthy criminal trial.

The charges he faced stemmed from a fraud in which he altered assay results for Boka from 2003 to 2007, overstating as many as 443 figures in 25 news releases. As he was doing so, he earned $5.6-million trading the stock, the prosecution claimed. His scheme only came to an end when an outside firm tried to verify the company's assays as part of a prefeasibility study, and Mr. Paterson resigned as the company's president. Southwestern subsequently had to retract all results from the property, with the resulting sell-off dropping the stock to $2.90 from $6.34.

His trial on the charges was scheduled to start Monday and to run for as long as five months. At the outset of Monday's hearing, however, defence lawyer Rod Anderson summoned Mr. Paterson to the front of the court room and advised the judge that his client had agreed to change his plea to guilty. After verifying that Mr. Paterson understood the consequences of pleading guilty, the judge accepted the plea.

The remainder is available to Stockwatch subscribers.
Sign-up for a FREE 30-day Stockwatch subscription and SEE NO ADS