GORD McINTOSH ‘The Chnadian Press More than 800 investors in British Columbie and down the U.S. West Coast lose $2 million“in'a get-rich-quick investment scheme in Hong Kong gold futures. An unregistered futures broker operates illegally right under the nose of the Ontario Securities Commission, preying on -ti who have no in the high-flying world of commodities trading. A commodities broker sets up shop ih Calgary after being driven out of British Columbia. No, it’s not the 1920s, when many stock brokers went to jail for stock manipulation. It's 1984, supposedly long after predatory gales tech- niques and huckster stings went the way of spats and ostrich feathers. INVESTORS SMITTEN While investiment communities around the world have been preoccupied with the emergence of a sophisticated, computerized and highly regulated global financial system, the small-time investor — supposedly better ed d than his predecessors — has been smitten with commodity futures trading. To securities regulators’ amazement, people have been lining up to plunk down their money for a new breed of unregistered brokers. The Canadian and U.S. councils of Better Business Bureaus, the North American Securities Administrators Association and the Ontario Securities Commission have issued investor alerts, warning people to do their homework before diving into the world of pork bellies and gold futures. To John Leybourne, deputy director of enforcement for the Ontario Securities Commission, there’s a simple explan ation for the success of 4 d ies Despite of wide-ranging securities r ” human greed and gullibility spring eternal, he says. “Such operati i adopt impressive and legitimate-sounding names to market their products,” says Leybourne. Names such as Dunn and Bradford or Forbes and Lloyds along with impressive addresses such as Bay Street or One Corporate Plaza often obscure the, fact that the address is often little more than a rented baek office or a mail drop. “These unregistered operators often use high-pressure sales tactics, including misrep ion of profits and risks, to sell questionable investments,” says Ley- bourne. “They are often more sophisticated versions of the old-style boiler-room operations . . . in whch smooth-talking con-men use the to contact hundreds of prosp in a day, usually sending messengers to pick up the prospects’ money immediately.” In British Columbia, not only were investors more than happy to open up accounts with two unregistered com- modity brokers, many signed discretionary trading contracts. Those were tantamount to power of attorney, in which the unregistered brokers were free to buy and sell gold options on the Hong Kong Exchange without the clients’ permission. When a Victoria pensioner, who lost $12,000 through such an with Y Ce ities Ltd., phoned the broker to close out his margin account, he was told notification had to be in writing. In the two or three days it took for the letter to reach ‘Vancouver, he lost another $6,000, That $18,000 loss wiped out most of his life savings. NOT ILLEGAL Such transactions would have been illegal under the B.C. Commodity Contract Act passed in 1978. But this legislation has never been proclaimed into law and officials of the B.C. Superintendent of Brokers Office could do nothing during the two years Yearcome and King Lung Commodities Ltd. were in operation. Most of the investor losses were for $10,000 to $15,000 but the superintendent's office received complaints of losses exceeding $35,000 and one of $70,000. Yearcome and King Lung shut down in January after a rash of publicity. King Lung is the subject of a criminal investigation by the RCMP and police in Seattle. Yearcome has since surfaced in Calgary under the name of Ragus Futures Ltd. Commodity trading in Alberta is also unregulated. Only Ontario and Manitoba have legislation regulating commodities trading. In Ontario, an unregistered broker was accepting com- modity trading orders for six months in 1982 before anyone contacted the securities commission, Leybourne says. ‘The broker was prosecuted and put out of business. “When a commodities broker calls,” says Leybourne,” the first thing you should ask is ‘Are you registered?’ If they're. not, hang up. Then call us.” ‘Nines : A) Wy \\ Mt PT ' <~ ka We are now “Open” = on Bay Avenve in Trail for your convenience. r DROP IN AND HAVE A COFFEE WITH US! WE CARRY: © Quality In-Ground Swimming Pools © Hot Tubs * Chemicals & Accessories Free computerized water analysis Letus put HOT TUB! caer nll i jock ox. | cerned with predator-prey relationships. What interests the biolo- gists is a question of econ- omics, where the coinage is energy to w and duce and the result of a bad “investment” is death. “There are a number of theories developed by econ- omists that cannot be tested in a real economy,” says Dill. “What we are trying to de- termine is how these organ- isms obtain information: and how they base decisions on that information.” He points out that lower forms of life make complex decisions in their feeding patterns without the benefit of enough brain power for conscious thought, suggest- VSE stock prices VANCOUVER (CP) — Prices were down in light trading Friday on the Van- couver Stock Vol- ume to close was 9,189,261 shares. ¢ Of issues traded, 180 ad- vanced, 248 declined and 878 were unchanged. The VSE index was 1020.29, down 3.23 from Thursday's close. In the industrials, MMC Video One remained at $1.85 on 13,200, Westcoast Trans- mission was steady at $14 1/8 on 3,600, B.C. Resources rose .05 to $3.20 on 3,370 and Datel Industries was un- changed at $1.50 on 600. Bal- co Industries was the same at $10 and International H.R.S. fell .05 to $2.60. nings .03 to .16 on 194,500, New Beginnings declined .08 to .87 on 122,200 and Tri-Power Petroleum gained .17 to .90 on 106,362. On the development board, Qued Resources was down 04 to $1.01 on 805,400, Templar Mining dropped .04 to .85 on 209,400, Majorteck Industries climbed .26 to $1.66 on 150,450 and Mam- moth Resources warrants was unchanged at .13 on 117,500. Templar Mining warrants D declined .01 to -16 and Qued war- We give you a choice of fixed or variable interest rates - not everyone does. A choice of ways to repay your loan. And we'll even let you pay it off early — with no penalty. So why not ask now about getting a Commerce loan to fit your needs? rants were steady.at .21. {ME — FORMERLY KNOWN AS PLAN 24 — ‘na N SPORTS DAY ACTIVITIES . . . Scenes from Twin Rivers Elementary School sports day held Friday. — Costtews Photos Pacific Western lowers Labatts three points up By RON NORMAN Editor Labatts gained some breathing room this week at the you in @ -~ this Year! RECREATION LTD they travel ake the children with you — Pacific Western makes it all possible with this super eco- nomical special fare! Travel up until September 8. Fly to any one of Pacific Western's over 40 locations in Western Canada plus Toronto. Enjoy the extra trips you can now afford because your kids can fly for just $25.00 each way. We'll even make your trip more affordable at the other end because you.can rent a car for as low as $159.00 a week with 1,050 free kilometers from Budget Rent-A-Car when you fly with us! cost of raising a family. 25" Now children can fly for just $25.00 when with an adult family ber. All the way to mem Hint: Call your travel agent or Pacific adult fare. = Adults and children’s tickets Western at 365-8488 now because seats must be purchased as a package and chil- are limited and at these low prices they'll dret's tickets are non réfundable.* Seats go fast! are not available on alf flights. © Travel Because this fare is such a big saving, you'll understand that a few limitations 1984. are. necessary. ® Children must be be- ed. ® Budget cars subject to availability tween the ages of 2-14 inclusive. ® Chil- at participating . dren must be accompanied by an adult must be reserved at 24 hours prior family member — maximum I child per to rental. Rates do nit include gas, taxes, adult. ® Adults may travel on any appli- of insurance. cable fare up to 35% discount. Children’s * tickets are to “chs aamene &PacificWestern regulations as apply to the applicable top of the Castlegar Commercial Fastball League standings, opening a three-point bulge on second place Carling O'Keefe. Labatts boasts 19 points on nine wins, four losses and a tie, while O'Keefe sports a record of eight wins and five losses for 16 points — with a game in hand. Hi Arrow — which has three games in hand on Labatts — js in third spot with 14 points om seven wins and four losses, while Thrums is in fourth with six wins, six losses and a tie. Sandman Inn erept back into contention tl a pair of wins.in three games. It now has. Wagon Royals rounds out the league with-only two points. Mi hil Inn's Doug M i to lead all batters, though he cooled off somewhat this week. Morrison dropped to a .500 average from .560 last week. He has 16 hits in 32 at bats. Bob Gretchen of Cariing O'Keefe and Don Deschene of Labatts remain in second and third spots, respectively. Gretchen has 16 hits in 35 at bats for a .457 average, while Deschene has 16 hits in 40 at bats for a .400 average. Hi Arrow’s Lawrence Halisheff tops league pitchers with a 4-1 mark, followed by Wayne Abietkoff of Sandman Inn with a 5-2 record. Last week's league leader, Bob Hutchinson of Carling O'Keefe, has left town for the remainder of the season. For complete standings and statistics, see Weekend Wrap-up, page B2. In action this week, Labatts cruised to easy wins over Thrums and Wool Wagon. Pete Evdokimoff picked up the win Monday in Labatts 6-1 victory over Thrums. Evdokimoff tossed a sparkling three-hitter. Thrums’ only run came on back-to-back hits by Wayne Kuzyk and Bill Tarasoff in the fourth inning. Joe Tarasoff was tagged with the loss, giving up six hits, including a home run by Bob Essaunce in the fifth inning. Labatts scored five of its six runs in the fifth and the final run in the sixth. Meanwhile, Labatts the Bix-hit-performanes OF Wool Wagon with two hits. Essaunce, Deschene, Tim Frick and Rich Percival each collected a pair of hits in Labatts’ nine-hit attack. And Essaunce picked up his second home run in as many games. Dennis Chernenkoff took the loss. The Royals also lost to Thrums by a close 54 score. Perry Hyson took the loss, while Ron Drazdoff was credited with the win. Drazdoff limited Wool Wagon to five hits — two by Dennis Chernenkoff. Hyson also threw a five-hitter, with Dan Latkin and Drazdoff each collecting a pair of hits. Thrums held a 5-1 lead after three innings, only to watch as Wool Wagon stormed back to within a single run. But Drazdoff took charge in the seventh inning to put the Royals down in order and preserve the win. Wool Wagon 5-2 behind e ‘Byrne: Randy Kirby led Wool Wagon dropped its third game on the week to Hi Arrow by a 10-5 count. Lawrence Halisheff was the winning pitcher and Hyson the loser. Royals touched Halisheff for eight hits, including three by Randy Kirby and two by Dave Palmer, while Doug Knowler slammed a homer in the third inning. Terry Halisheff led Hi Arrow with two hits in four appearances at the plate. » Hi Arrow split its two games this week, losing to Sandman Inn 5-1. Darcy Bradford was on the mound for the loss, while Wayne Abietkoff picked up the victory, tossing a two-hitter. Tim Keraiff had two of the seven Sandman Inn hits. Sandman Inn led 3-1 after two innings and scored two more runs in the top of the seventh. Sandman also came out on top in the first of two matches with Carling O'Keefe. Two runs in the bottom of the seventh pulled out the win for the hotel club. But that was only after Sandman Inn blew a 6-1 lead. The hotel teams scored once in the second and fourth innings and four times in the fifth to hold a 6-1 lead after five innings. But they saw the five-run cushion disappear as the brewery boys scored twice in the sixth and four times in the top of the seventh to take a 7-6 lead. However, O'Keefe couldn't hold the lead either and Sandman Inn scored twice in their half of the seventh to win it. Steve Kanigan hit in the tying and winning runs for Sandman. Kanigan picked up two hits in the game, along with Dave Kinakin, Doug Morrison and Sandy Booth. Bill WEST’S TRAVEL AGENCY HENNE TRAVEL MAPLE LEAF TRAVEL LTD. 1217 - af Saaeget 1410 Bay Ave., Trail 605 - 18th pobre: aa Rowing team upsets U.S. LUCERNE, SWITZER LAND (CP) — The Canadian heavyweight eights recorded a stunning upset Saturday over favored United States and East Germany in the final of the Rotsee interna- tional rowing regatta, setting a course record in the pro- cess. The Canadians led from the start, holding off a second-half challenge by the U.S. Olympic team, to clock five minutes 29.41 seconds for the 2,000-metre course. The previous best on the natural rowing basin just outside of here was 5:32.47 set last year by East Ger- many. “If I am not mistaken, I think it is the fastest time ever for a heavy eights race,” said Jim Railton, a coach at Oxford University in Eng- land. “Conditions were ideal, sunny but not too warm-and not much wind. “So a record is not a sur- prise. What is surprising is who set it.” : No official world records are kept in rowing. Canada had built a solid lead by the 500-metre mark. “We.were held a boat length up by that time,” said Mark Evans, 26, of Toronto, the race went according to plan. “The plan was simply to go all out from end to end,” Campbell said. “I know the American coach (Chris Kor- zeniowski) and he likes to keep in contact with the leader until half-way and then row through them at the end. “But I don’t know my crew as well as he knows his. We've only had ours together for six weeks. But I saw in the heats (Friday) that we had the kind of raw speed you can win with. “So I just gave our boat a stroke rate and figured if you get down to the end first, you win.” With Mark Evans were uis twin brother, Mike; Patrick Turner, 23, of Vancouver; Kevin Neufield, 23, of St, Catharines, Ont.; Paul Steele, 26, of Delta; Grant Main, 24, of Victoria; Dean Crawford, 26, of Victoria; Blair Horn, 22, of Kelowna, and cox Brian McMahon, 22, of St. Catharines, Ont. Bob Mills, 25, of Dart- mouth, N.S., turned in an im- pressive performance in the men’s single sculls, despite finishing fourth. Olympic gold medallist Pertti Karp- pinen of Finland won the race in 6:50.77. Oeter Michael Kolbe of West Germany, the 1983 world champion, was second in 6:55.18. Ruediger Reiche of East Germany was third in 6:56.88. Mills clocked 7:05.00, beating world silver medallist Uwe Mund of East Germany, who was fifth. BOAT PROBLEMS “I was having problems today, all the same,” said Mills, who was competing for the first time in Europe. “The boat I used has a tendency to go to port. “It causes your right arm to go tight; and it messes up the race quite a bit.” With East Germany out of the Los Angeles Olympics, .Mills now has to be con- sidered a medal favorite. Mills credits coaching by national sculls coach Jack Nicholson of St. Catharines, Ont., for his meteoric rise to world-calibre sculling. Disabled games begin UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — The third International Games for the Disabled, held in the United States for the first time, begins today with President Reagan delivering the keynote address at the new $11-million Mitchel Field Athletic facility. Gov. Mario Cuomo of New parade of the 55 countries, whic have entered more than the 1,800 athletes who are blind, 29, but China is entered along with such Eastern-bloc coun- tries as Bulgaria, East Ger- fencing, table tennis, lawn bowling, wheelchair soccer, goalball and volleyball. Cc will be held in many, Hungary and Poland, The games have been held every four years since 1976, usually in the country which holds the Olympic Games. Toronto was the site for the Nazaroff went three for four. Dennis Nursery sparked the O'Keefe attack with three hits, while Larry Chernenkoff two hits. Wayne Abietkoff collected out 10 hits, while Roger Essery suffered the loss, allowing 12 hits. But O'Keefe came back stopping Sandman Inn 7-1 behind the seven-hit pitching of Essery. Gerry Trubetskoff took the loss as O'Keefe had 12 hits. Martin, Nursery and Chernenkoff each had a pair of hits for O'Keefe, while Booth and Kinakin had two hits for Sandman Inn. Dewalt may miss another game VANCOUVER (CP) — Quarterback Roy Dewalt of British Columbia Lions is listed as questionable for Monday's Canadian Football League exhibition game against Saskatchewan Roughriders at B.C. Place Stadium. : Dewalt, recovering from offseason ankle surgery, missed the Lions’ first two exhibition tests, a 56-17 win over Calgary Stampeders and a 32-8 decision over Ed- monton Eskimos. The veteran pivot under- went surgery during the winter and had two pins re- moved from his ankle in March. Dewalt did not par- ticipate in contact drills dur- ing training camp and the B.C. coaching staff had hoped he would be ready by the third exhibition field, swimming, wrestling, basketball, weightlifting, and Bruce Martin each had the win, as O'Keefe pounded in the return engagement, Head coach Don Matthews has indicated that Tim Cowan and Mike Williams are running neck-and-neck in the battle for a position on the active roster, although Phillies on winning streak CHICAGO (AP) — Ozzie Virgil's tworun homer capped a five-run first inning Saturday and powered Marty Bystrom and Philadelphia Philliles to an 8&2 National League baseball victory over Chicago Cubs. The triumph was the fourth straight for the Phillies. The Cubs lost their third in a row, all to the surging Phillies. Bystrom, 3-8, pitched eight innings for the victory while Rick Reuschel, 3-8, suffered the loss, much to the dismay of a capacity crowd of 40,723 at Wrigley Field, largest of the season. Juan Samus} started the Phillies big first inning with groundout delivered another run before Virgil homered into the left field seats. It was Virgil's seventh home run, a season high. He had six last year and three in 1982. EXPOS 3 PIRATES 2 MONTREAL (CP) — Andre Dawson delivered a bases-loaded single with none out in the 11th inning to lift Montreal Expos to a 3-2 triumph over Pittsburgh Pirates. Miguel Dilone had opened the 11th against reliever Kent Tekulve, 2-6, by lining a triple that rolled to the fence in left-centre field. Tim Raines and pinch hitter Pete Rose were then intentionally walked, but Dawson foiled the strategy by ripping a single into left field past the drawn-in infield. Jeff Reardon, 3-1, earned the victory with a scoreless 11th inning. The Pirates, who held a 1-0 lead until Montreal scored twice in the fifth, tied it 2-2 in the sixth. Leadoff singles by Marvell Wynne and Lee Mazzilli off Gullickson left runners at first and third. When Bill Madlock’s grounder forced Mazzilli at second, Wynne scored. BLUE JAYS 7 RED SOX 0 TORONTO (CP) — Luis Leal blanked the Red Sox on a two hitter and Buck Martinez drove in three runs, two on a home run to left, to pace Toronto Blue Jays to a 7-0 vietory over Boston. It was the fourth consecutive win for Toronto and the fourth straight loss for the Red Sox. Leal, 7-1, was touched for a single by Rick Miller in the second inning and then proceeded to set down the following 13 batters before Jim Rice doubled to lead off the seventh. Leal struck out nine, tying his career high, and walked one as he picked up his second shutout of the season. It was the third twohitter of 27-year-old right-hander's career. Martinez connected for his first homer of the season with Jesse Barfield aboard with two out in the fourth off Bruce Hurst, 8-5, to pad the Jays lead to 3-0. The chunky catcher jumped on a 1-0 pitch and deposited it just clear of the fence in the left-field corner. Cowan has been the more impressive to date. JENKINS POSSIBLE B.C. officials are optimistic | that rookie running back Keyvan Jenkins will be in the lineup against the Rough- riders. Jenkins suffered a shoulder injury against Cal- gary after ushing for 44 yards and missed the Edmon- ton game. Jenkins, an import from Nevada-Las Vegas, was ex- pected to push veterans John Henry White and Ray Strong for a starting backfield po- sition. Strong, coming back from knee surgery, rushed for 70 yards against the Es- kimos. Locals win senior tourney CasNews kins and Norm Fishwiek with A senior golf team from 145. githt + i ail He 8 RP ite i ra sti st low net of 142 for first place. Runners-up were Pete Murphy, Chuck Dabner, scores Walt Laurie and Walt Ger- Attending the tournament : ; E REET ? i ie i ? ; a i i i z