David Walsh and John Felderhof had a dream; they wanted to be rich, very rich. And so, they set out to fulfill their dream by discovering a gold mine. They convinced others to join them in their quest, and an Albertan junior mining company called Bre-X was born.
This “little company that could” acquired a potential mining site, in a remote jungle area of the Indonesian island of Borneo, a sparsely populated area called Busang. Walsh, Felderhof, and company explored the site’s potential, and ultimately convinced the world they had found one of the largest gold deposits on the planet. However, to accomplish this primary global objective and to turn a dream into a major financial reality, they had first to make some key partnerships with major players: a company that would do the actual mining, the government of President Suharto, and his very influential family and friends. Bre-X had to do business in a marketplace that did not necessarily follow the relatively simple rules that North Americans are accustomed to. It had to operate in a financial world in which it is not uncommon to “buy business” in one way or another. Bre-X then had to begin to fight for control of its find against some very big international players, including its initial collaborators. And last but not least, it had to get its stock on important stock exchanges, attract investors, create credibility, stimulate buying and selling—in short, create a momentum that would result in large amounts of capital for Bre-X that would pay for getting the anticipated wealth out of the ground.
All went well for about three years. Bre-X came to epitomize the
“rags-to-riches” North American dream. Initially disbelieving, the
market eventually jumped on board Bre-X’s bandwagon, and the company’s penny stocks soared past the $280 level. But, as in Greek tragedy, nemesis struck. The dream plummeted to earth. In a few short months in early 1997, and finally in a matter of minutes, almost $3 billion worth of stock market value was obliterated. Bre-X became “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the public of all time.” It was called “the largest mining swindle since the bad old days of the 1950s and 1960s.” Canada, briefly the mine finance capital of the world, was now seen by many as its laughingstock.
Was it hubris, incompetence, the exponential market psychology
that created too much growth, too fast, the whims of a dictator in a
far-off country, greed, deceit, or major criminal activity that burst
the bubble?
Have we witnessed the dark side of capitalism? And what will be the impact on the Canadian marketplace? Will there be a significant diplomatic fall-out from the Bre-X experience? Will retribution occur? What is the moral of this tale?
For Bre-X and many Canadians, it may well be a lesson in humility a hard lesson in international investment. As one financial analyst warned relatively early in the story.
Shareholder of Bre-X Fights Back. Bre-X - The mere mention of this four-letter word chills the spines of millions of people who followed the tale of the tiny exploration company that claimed to have hit paydirt, uncovering the Mother Lode of gold in Indonesia. Bre-X literally took investors on a ride by flushing away over $6 billion of investors money in a massive, unprecedented fraud.
Executives of Bre-X laughed their way to the bank with nearly $100 million of cashed stock options while investors were left empty-handed, with few even having a chance to own a Bre-X stock certificate due to the limited number that were printed and distributed by the company before the fall.
This copyrighted creation is certain to become an entertaining
conversation piece for your office or home with its prominent display of one million Bre-X shares. It is certain to become a collectible item, reminding the owner for years to come ,"that what looks too good to be true usually isn’t."
PRESS RELEASE
Bre-X Minerals Ltd., a name with fraud for its theft of billions of investors' dollars from an imaginary jungle gold mine that produced nothing more than hype. Bre-X is currently in a fight for its very survival with numerous class action lawsuits from angry investors and now the company has a new opponent to contend with, an individual shareholder who is fighting mad and fighting back on his own terms. A man named Colin Firth is the madman who is fighting back. Newspaper publisher is about to show Bre-X that it is not always a good idea to pick a fight a man. The Bre-X fraud is the creation of a new business venture titled BRE-XSCAM, a name that summarizes the stock market swindle that used the Internet to shamelessly promote the company’s rumor mill driving Bre-X values to unbelievable levels.
"After losing money in Bre-X I took a look at my options," said Firth. "I could do nothing and complain about having my money thrown away from me, the class action suits would take years to settle in court.
Firth spent several months researching Bre-X and has created a
unique, collectable limited edition print which he has titled "The
Bungle in the Jungle".
"The Bungle in the Jungle" headlines are presented in a striking gold ink against a black background and surround an exact reproduction of an extremely rare stock certificate issued by Bre-X bearing the value of one million shares. Along with the limited edition and numbered print series, Firth has also created an Internet location billed as the "Official Bre-X Site for Entertainment". It offers an overview of the jungle journey that quite literally took investors along the yellow brink road to Busang, Indonesia, from golden dreams to a nightmare on
Bay Street.
There has been no response yet from Bre-X Minerals Ltd., but Firth did receive a call from an individual claiming to be an attorney representing an official of the mining company, and a veiled threat was issued with a warning of an impending cease and desist order against Firth. "I don't know if this should be considered a joke or not but either way I think that it is a bit rich that someone claiming to be associated with Bre-X is questioning my ethics," explains Firth. "This threat has only strengthened my resolve to use this project as a stand on principles, the little guy against corporate greed."
Forside
