Van Sun says Panterra ex-directors face BCSC discipline

2009-01-19 09:09 ET - In the News

The Vancouver Sun reports in its Saturday edition that a West Vancouver lawyer's career is in tatters after he admitted misappropriating money from Panterra Resources.

The Sun's David Baines, writing in Securities, says that in November, Andrew Gordon Walker admitted his sins to the Law Society of B.C.

He has resigned as a lawyer and agreed not to apply for reinstatement for 10 years.

Now he and two former Panterra co-directors, Dale Paulson of Surrey and Giuliano Tamburrino of Edmonton, are facing disciplinary action by the B.C. Securities Commission.

It alleges that in February, 2005, Panterra transferred $86,380 from its bank account to the trust account of Mr. Walker's law firm. The trio then used the money to buy 614,470 shares from two Panterra shareholders and kept the shares for themselves.

The commission also alleges Panterra paid a $50,000 finder's fee to a company owned by an associate of Mr. Tamburrino, purportedly for finding a property in Alberta. However, the associate was never involved in the transaction.

Meanwhile, the commission says, Panterra filed documents with the commission falsely representing that it had spent $136,455 on the Alberta property and the finder's fee.

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