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Crystallex International Corporation is a Canadian-based gold company with a successful record of developing and operating gold mines in Venezuela and elsewhere in South America

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Message: ICSID question

I didn't plan to make any more posts, but I agree you deserve to hear my reasons for departing and the .30 estimate I gave. I don't have the exact figures I used and have little desire to go find them, but I will give you my assumptions and you can compare them to the settlement and see if they make sense or if you thik I'm off base.

My main assumption is that Fung will not seek anything above the $700 million where his 10% caps out. Why would he when that would just give more value to shareholders but only yield him 2% vs. 10% for the easy $700 million. In all the years I was in KRY, I have seen no evidence that Fung gives a damn about retail shareholders.

Based on our current situation and a $700m arbitration, we will have approximately $200m in depts, interests and expenses. This assumes that the note holders will not receive anything more than their principal plus interest. I highly doubt this will be the case and I expect them to get some % of the award in the end. Despite that, I believe our cut as shareholders after expenses and the DIP lender cut plus management cut is 35%. That would net $175m divided among 365m shares or about $.48 per share. This assumes waiting for final payment. I fully expect at least another $50m in expenses either to noteholders or to the BOD, which takes us down to about $.34, again waiting until the final award is paid.

Those who still believe in this stock are gambling on an award far above the $700m I assume. It could happen, but my experience with Fung tells me this is a long shot. Fung cares about Fung and his board (and maybe EZ). His $150k bonus just before filing bankruptcy should tell you something. I don't doubt he did everything he thought was best to gain the permit, but once he failed in that he handled everything after very poorly. I don't own GRZ, but Bellanger handled the post permit sitaution and arbitration much better. EZ has never answered why GRZ got their permit when Hugo supposedly hated them and loved us. Their permit was canceled only after we were denied ours. I think Fung ignored what was being signaled in VZ press and therefore we ended up in a worse position.

I don't advise selling if you believe in this story, but I think it has become more emotional than realistic. The market reaction after court approval of the DIP is a big tell for me. My calculation suggested I had an upside of .30 to .40 but I would need to wait several years for that. Even if the award was in the neighborhood of .60 we still have the expenses of teh noteholder restructure to address, and no one is going to pay more than half of that for a gain several years away. I have already lost over $150,000 in this stock and the few thousand shares I had left would not even make a dent on this even if we got $1.00 a share.

I did not intend to post after selling, but EZ's post just got me going. EZ would be a great ally for a private company he believed in, but he would make a poor investment advisor. That's OK, but his trashing of anyone who questioned Fung or CRY got under my skin. My trading mentor taught me that I should never invest to be right, just to make money. Many company's have been "right" about what they did, but if they don't deliver for shareholders then they have failed. This is what we have forgotten. Fung's job was to deliver for shareholders. In my opinion he should have seen the signs that GRZ did and filed sooner when we were not so desparate. Right or wrong that has (IMHO) left us in a situation where we are unlikely to gain more than a minimal price. I am just no longer willing to keep this albatros on my neck.

I wish everyone who still believes good luck. It's just over for me. I do not plan to post here anymore but am available by PM.

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