TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – A British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) panel has dismissed fraud allegations against Jon Richard Carnes, the man who ran the ‘Alfred Little’ financial blog.
The panel also dismissed staff's application for an order in the public interest.
In a notice of hearing issued December 19, 2013, BCSC staff alleged that Carnes perpetrated a fraud when he anonymously published a negative report about Silvercorp Metals, which drove down its share price, and Carnes profited from a short position he held in Silvercorp shares.
TSX- and NYSE-listed Silvercorp is a mining company and reporting issuer with its head office in Vancouver.
Staff also alleged that Carnes' conduct was contrary to the public interest, and stated that it was in the public interest for the commission to issue an order.
The notice alleged that Carnes posted a report that contained several false statements, and omitted to state certain information, in relation to a mining expert's report about Silvercorp. A central part of Carnes' report and the expert's report was the differences between Silvercorp's Chinese filings and its North American regulatory filings for the company's SGX mine, in China.
The Chinese filings had lower production, quality, and resource estimates than those stated in the North American regulatory findings.
In its decision, the panel dismissed the fraud allegations, stating that none of the statements or omissions "constitute a prohibited act for the purpose of fraud."