Tag: shady-promoters

Swamped

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The law firms made a ton of money

too, charging the shell company thousands of dollars in fees, and the
brokerage and the accounting firms got their share filing all the financial
statements. Yes, the shell game meant a lot of money for
downtown Vancouver, and everyone knew it, even the regulators,
who had never wanted to shut the game down completely. It was only
pressure from the newspapers and the George Gains type of reporters
that made them squeeze the practice occasionally, just tightly enough
to ease the pressure without ending the game.
Every time the regulators changed something, the brokers only
had to modify their model to accommodate the change, nothing
more. When Eteo became a broker, the minimum seed stock price
was ten cents and the minimum price of prospectus shares was fifteen,
but later these were raised to twenty five cents for seed stock
and forty cents for prospectus shares. The shell companies were put
together in the same way. Only the numbers were different and the
commission rates changed. The creation of shell companies of course
depended a lot on the business cycle. In good times a lot of new companies
were listed while in rough times only a few went through.
Everything depended on the investing mood of the public, nothing
else.
Preoccupied with these thoughts, Eteo drove to Horseshoe Bay,
parked his Jaguar, and walked into the lounge of Sewell’s to find
Robert already waiting. Robert O’Leary, an Irish-Canadian, also lived
in North Vancouver, in fact at the top of Lonsdale Avenue in a thirtyyear-
old house with the most beautiful views of downtown Vancouver.
He was married to Donna and they had two daughters. Robert,
originally from Saskatchewan, had grown up in Vancouver and had
spent most of his career working for Kodak, but with the invention
of digital cameras he had found himself in an industry that was
quickly going down the drain. Rather than wait to be laid off, he had
taken early retirement, with a golden handshake, and started getting
involved in VSE deals, slowly in the beginning and more daringly as
they days went by and as he learned the tricks an investor should
know.
“Hello Eteo. How have you been?” Robert called out as soon as
Eteo stepped through the door.

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Swamped

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and as the time approached for the bell to announce the end of trading,
he called Rebecca Horton and suggested they meet at Da Carlo’s,
to which she agreed.
When they met Rebecca in the lounge of the restaurant, Eteo
hugged her. Her body, firm and willing, excited him, and he remembered
when Rebecca had told him about travelling to Crete the summer
after her graduation and the great time she had had there with
the Cretan lover she had met there and would never forget. Eteo had
joked at the time that Cretan men knew how to make a woman happy
and since then they had developed a relationship, a strange one since
Rebecca was a married woman now, but her desire for a Cretan man
had remained in her mind and Eteo was the only Cretan man around.
at was their secret pact, and whenever the opportunity came along,
they enjoyed each other in the fullest of ways.
She was hot today, with an obvious fire burning in her eyes, a
flaming, dark red lipstick and a body that moved next to Eteo in an
outrightly sensual way. As they talked, he couldn’t take his mind away
from the desire to have her today. They sat close to each other and
ordered a drink, but business had to take priority.
“Talk to me” Rebecca said.
“I have a small group I can use to raise a couple of hundred thousand
dollars,” Eteo replied, “and I have a good property from George
Beaton. He assures me it will go through very easily.”
“So you want to put together a new shell company.”
“Yes, and I have the directors. You know my people.”
Rebecca frowned at this.
“You think I shouldn’t use my regulars?” Eteo asked her.
“Well, investors keep an eye on who’s in there, and they tend to
dislike the same people as directors, especially when they aren’t as
qualified. Remember the article that came out lately?”
Rebecca had a valid point. Eteo remembered the article very well.
It was by a well-known VSE critic, George Gains, and had appeared
prominently in the business section of the Vancouver Sun. Gains was
famous for reporting everything and anything he could learn about
the low-lives that run around law firms and brokerages hatching
shady deals.

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Swamped

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He dialed Rebecca’s number first. Her pleasant voice delighted
him when she answered. It was a voice Eteo likened to a mixture of
honey and birdsong, both of which he loved.
“Would you be able to drop by for a few minutes, Eteo?” she
asked. “The annual report for Redama Resources is ready. Come and
have a look at it, and let’s make sure we haven’t forgotten anything.”
Rebecca always consulted him before she filed reports on
Redama with the regulators and other authorities. Eteo had brought
this file to her and she regarded him as the guiding force behind the
company, whose directors, two engineers with little financial background
between them, didn’t know much about these filings. Eteo
had seen many over the years and knew how to peruse them quickly.
“I could come anytime, Rebecca. How is your own schedule?”
“I’m free for the next hour. Could you come over now?”
As usual Eteo had hardly anything to do by this point in his day.
He would have left in half an hour anyway, so he confirmed that he
would walk over soon. It was only two blocks down to the 1177 West
Hastings tower and a quick elevator ride up to the 21st floor where
the Horton and Musgrave offices were located.
Ten minutes later, after telling Helena where he was going and
that he would not be back that day, he was sitting at Horton and Musgrave’s
reception. He only had to wait a minute before Rebecca appeared
and extended her hand, which Eteo squeezed warmly and
held perhaps a moment longer than would have been customary between
business colleagues. Rebecca told the receptionist to hold her
calls and took Eteo to her office. He sat down opposite her and she
handed over the file. It took Eteo only a couple of minutes to be satisfied
that everything that needed to be said was there. When he
handed the papers back he noticed that Rebecca’s hand felt hot and
sweaty, and when he got up to leave, she gave him her hand again.
He pulled her closer and found no resistance at all. Instead Rebecca
almost fell into his arms and returned his deep kiss with equal passion.
Her breathing became fast and excited and Eteo felt his groin’s
hot desire for the body of this attractive young lawyer, who was exploring
his mouth with her tongue and obviously eager for more and
more of him. His hands ran down her delicate body to her buttocks,

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Swamped

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Eteo’s thoughts took him back and forth between this pleasant
Vancouver afternoon with its sea whispers and almost imperceptible
sounds of the people around him and the lonely days of his childhood
when his father was far away and he and his brother struggled
to understand why. He was on the way back to his car when Logan
called to ask whether he should dispose of all the shares of the underperforming
real estate company that another client, Tom Batsas,
had in his account and switch Tom to Platinum Properties or keep
some of the real estate shares and buy Tom just a few of the new company.
Eteo advised him to tell Tom to sell all the underperforming
shares and put all the funds into the new company, which would give
Tom a good chance of making something out of this one.
When he had almost reached his car, Eteo spotted Frankie again.
This time the promoter was with two other people, Sandra Wilson, a
well-known Hollywood actress, and a young man he did not recognize.
Frankie gestured for Eteo to join them and introduced him to
the actress, whom Eteo had already recognized, and the young man,
who was introduced as Ricardo. As they shook hands, Frankie told
his companions that Eteo was an investor and a good supporter of
Lionsgate Entertainment.The others responded politely, but what impressed
Eteo most were the simple manners of the famous actress.
She spoke to Eteo as if she had known him all her life, as did Ricardo,
even though the encounter was brief and they only exchanged the
usual pleasantries.
All the same the encounter made Eteo want to find out more
about Frankie’s new venture into the realm of Hollywood and of actors
and actresses who were paid at the level of Sandra Wilson. He
knew she was one of the most highly paid actresses in the world. Perhaps
it would be a good idea to invest some of his clients’ money in
this new company, but he hesitated. He was unfamiliar with the industry.
Recommending Lionsgate Entertainment would be taking a
chance unless he delved into the details, especially the earnings potential
and success rates of such ventures. Of course, he knew very
well that every time someone put money in a company it wasn’t …

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Swamped

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Eteo dialed Susan’s number.
“Hello sweet Susan.”
“A sweet hello to you too, Eteo,” she replied.
“Want to hook up for lunch?”
“Sure. Are you very hungry?”
“Extremely. And you?” he asked, teasing her.
“I am.”
“Hungry for what, though, sweet Susan?”
She laughed into his ear. “And for that.”
“I’ll make sure you’re fed, my love,” Eteo promised.
It was the first time Susan had heard him call her that. She felt
her cheeks redden, and a sweeter feeling ran down her spine and over
her whole body.
“What time is your lunch break today?” Eteo asked.
“In twenty minutes. Can you wait for me?”
“Twenty minutes, yes, but not a single minute more. You’ll come
down here?”
Susan assured him she would be there on time
“See you in twenty, baby,” Eteo said, putting down the phone.
A quick check of Platinum Properties showed it trading at 55c
with his orders lower than the market. He called Logan into his office.
“Raise these two orders a little higher. From 49 and 51 cents to
53 and 54. We’ve been sitting too low. I don’t see us getting any shares
otherwise.”
Logan quickly changed the prices of the buying slips and went
to the trading desk to instruct the traders. By the time he got back to
his father’s office, they were first in the line of purchasers and within
a few seconds they had secured almost twenty thousand shares in a
couple of transactions. Eteo smiled.
“Stay at this position until the end of the day. John might decide
to take some of his profit and walk.”
Logan agreed, seeing what was happening in the market as another
seven thousand shares came to them at the same price. Almost
as soon as Logan had gone back to his desk, Susan arrived. Eteo got
up at once, took her by the arm and walked her out. Susan was still
flushed and warmed up from his earlier words today.

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Swamped

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That was something the clients wouldn’t understand.
He could only try to convince them using the excuse of averaging
down but he couldn’t risk pushing them, and he couldn’t blame
them for refusing. The shares hadn’t done much for them. Why
would they want to invest even more.
He called Logan back into his office.
“Who can we approach to promote this a little? Who do you have
who might be interested? We can base our argument on the prospect
of new brokers coming in.”
“I don’t know, Dad. We could burn a few people with this. You
know that.”
“Give it some thought. Perhaps we could offer an incentive.”
“It would still be a hard sell. When they look at this market,
they’ll see weakness. Who would go into that, incentive or not? And
incentive from whom? From us? I wouldn’t risk it for someone like
Richard.”
Logan sounded disappointed by his father’s willingness to support
Richard Walden when the older man knew very well that this
company wasn’t likely to go up any time soon.
“What have we done with the disposal of some of the real estate
company’s stock? Have you talked to anyone?” Eteo asked, changing
the subject to one they were both more comfortable with.
“Yes, and we got a few approvals. I already have some orders filled
and some still in the market. I’m bidding for some new shares already
for the clients I’ve already sold.”
“Very good. Let’s focus on that for today and tomorrow.”
Logan went back to his desk, and Eteo turned his armchair toward
the window. He gazed at the blue sky and leaned his chair back
a little, closing his eyes and traveling back to a place where the sun
was bright and hot most of the year and where he used to go swimming
as early as April. He would go to visit his brother soon. He
would spend a month or more over there. Logan could look after the
clients.

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Swamped

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Logan getting up and walking to the shower. The sound of the water
mixed with the chirping of birds in the trees around the house. Logan
came down ready for an early departure to the office.
“You’re up very early today, son,” Eteo said.
“Yes, earlier than usual, but let me share a coffee with you before
I go,” Logan replied. He walked to the kitchen and poured himself a
cup, then sat next to his father.
“What should we focus on today, Dad?”
“Keep on buying slowly in the new company. We have plenty of
orders, right?”
“God, yes, at least half a million, but I’ll do it slowly.”
“Yes, and carefully. If you notice anything strange, let me know
right away. And don’t forget we have plenty to allocate to our clients
from the private placement.”
“Yes, I remember, and yet we still have lots of orders. When the
market goes after it like we do, what do you think will happen to the
price?”
“We don’t like to chase it up ourselves, you know. We want other
people to do that.”
“Yes, of course.”
“And something else. Let’s try to unload some of that loser we
bought a year ago, that real estate deal that didn’t do well. Let’s call a
few of our people who invested in it and convince some of them to
take the loss and reposition into this one. They’ll have a better chance
of recovering their losses and maybe even making a few dollars this
time. Get Helena to talk to some of them. Let’s see where that takes
us.”
“Okay, will do.”
“Have you got enough stock for your key people?”
“Not for all, but I’ll keep on buying. Slowly, as you said. We have
enough right now for the two brothers and Angelo. Have you talked
to them?”
“Yes, I talked to them and to Yannis. Kenny too. Position him
and his friends in this one, but slowly, as long as we get some stock
for all of them, okay?”

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Swamped

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young woman, whom Eteo found pleasant and sociable. She was a
Chinese-Canadian whose parents lived in Coquitlam.
Eteo took Jonathan and drove to a pool hall at Broadway and
Ontario where Jonathan had discovered they had one table of European
billiards, a game at which his uncle was a master.
“Will I ever win against you, uncle?” Jonathan asked after Eteo
had taken the third game in a row.
Eteo laughed. “You will when I let you” he answered, and
Jonathan laughed too. They sipped their lattes and played again and
when they had finished, Eteo drove back to the house just as the
cleaning ladies were putting their things away.
For dinner, Eteo suggested a visit to Mythos, a Greek spot on
Lonsdale where he knew the owner and the boys always enjoyed their
meals. It was a fairly new place, and Angelo had done an expert job
decorating the interior since he was already a partner in another
restaurant on Marine Drive. In the kitchen he had a cook whom Eteo
also knew well, and whose special appetizer of mussels was what Eteo
liked the most about the place.
Angelo’s sister, who worked as the hostess, took them to their
table. They were all hungry and fell like vultures on their appetizers
of humus, calamari, and pitta bread as soon as they came. By the time
the main courses arrived, they were almost full, but that only meant
they had plenty to take home at the end of the evening.
Early next morning, with the clock on the night table reading
4:00, Eteo still tossed and turned in bed, unable to go to sleep, his
mind racing through a myriad of thoughts like a crazy monkey on a
big tamarind tree jumping from branch to branch as if in desperate
search for something hidden there. The bedroom was a little too
warm, and his breathing was as loud and irregular as his thoughts.
He often planned his next day while awake in his bed the night
before, so this morning wasn’t any different from others. Fully awake
now, Eteo let his eyes travel around the walls. The window was still
very dark at this time in the morning. Light would come no earlier
than seven, but he felt the need to talk to someone. Who would be
there for him to call and talk right now? The sounds of the house
were regular and steady.

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Swamped

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“Yeah.” Frankie smiled. “Movies. Look it up. It’s going places.”
“I shall.”
“Have a good day, Eteo,” Frankie said as his phone rang again
and he walked off to answer it.
Eteo had met Frankie when they both worked for Yorkshire Securities,
one of the solidest firms in Vancouver. He had known Henry,
Frankie’s brother, first, and through Henry he had met Frankie, who
had risen from a junior broker there to being one of the big wheels
in downtown Vancouver.
Frankie had important contacts all over, which meant he could
raise huge amounts of money for any deal he thought was good. Eteo
knew nothing about the film industry, but if Frankie said Lionsgate
Entertainment was going places, Eteo knew he should look into it.
He walked toward the 22nd Street dock. The water was beautiful
again, with small swells washing over the rocks on the shore and
making the sea weed and barnacles that covered them shimmer.
Countless sea gulls circled and swooped above calling out strange
messages that only gulls understood. Their screeching voices always
struck Eteo as almost out of this world. ey seemed to inhabit a
world of wonders and exaggerations. Did Frankie, who had le the
resource sector to get involved in the film industry, inhabit another
world of wonders now?
Eteo knew that a lot of brokers followed Frankie wherever he led.
They all wanted a piece of whatever action Frankie had. At one time
there had even been rumors that Frankie controlled Yorkshire Securities.
He had certainly seemed to have the biggest say in everything
the firm got into. Then the rumors were that he had left the firm to
develop something totally his, a company from scratch. Could this
Lionsgate Entertainment be the one? Eteo always admired people who
started from the bottom and became leaders in their field. Frankie
was such a man, and Eteo promised himself to look into Lionsgate as
soon as he could.
His eyes were drawn to a runabout coming under the Lions Gate
Bridge and speeding toward the outer area of English Bay. Runabouts
were used as water taxies to ferry harbour pilots, who by law were
assigned to command the vessels in and out of the harbour.

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Swamped

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“We’ll get some. It has the sweetener of the warrant, a two-year
warrant. It could mean some good profit down the road.”
They discussed the details until Yannis was satisfied. Business
over, he led Eteo to his garden and with a proud voice described this
year’s crop. He still had a lot of greens—arugula, spinach, Swiss chard,
and beets—but he was proudest of this year’s tomatoes. He grew three
varieties: Roma, Early Girl, and Beefsteak, the last of which produced
huge fruits that took a longer time to ripen. Yannis would use these
late tomatoes to dice and put in the freezer for cooking while the others
were for present use in salads. Eteo had many of the same things
in his much smaller garden. Growing his own beautiful, tasty vegetables
was a practice from his earliest years in Vancouver. He recalled
his first house in Richmond and the tiny vegetable patch there
that he still managed to get plenty of fresh produce from.
They walked around the gardens chatting about old times until
they reached Yannis’s fig trees. e fruits were finished by this time
of the year, but Eteo knew that Yannis had a very good crop of figs
every year. A little later he le for North Vancouver where he would
reach just in time for his aernoon walk at Ambleside Park.
A few minutes before he reached his house, his mobile phone
rang and Eteo pulled to the side of the road.
“Hi Eteo, it’s Spiro.”
“Spiro, what’s up?”
“Did you buy me some of the new shares?”
“Yes, I got you twelve thousand, and it ended up 40 cents for the
week. I expect it to gain a little more this coming week.”
“Should we get a few more before it moves higher?” Spiro’s voice
sounded anxious.
“No, not from the market. I’ll allot a few more to you from the
financing they do at 40 cents and we get a two-year warrant.”
“How many more do you suggest?” Spiro’s voice was calmer now.
He had always trusted Eteo and always passed the recommendations
to his brother Mike, who would follow him and purchase the same
amount of shares in each of Eteo’s recommendations.
“I’ll put aside another eight thousand so you end up with twenty.
What do you think? Can you afford that many?”

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