VMS Ventures looks to identify four Stockhouse users

2012-08-31 12:53 ET - Street Wire

by Mike Caswell

VMS Ventures Inc. has filed four petitions in the Supreme Court of British Columbia looking to identify Stockhouse users the company claims were behind a series of false and malicious posts, including one that said the company was a "classic pump and dump" and another that said management was "shagging sheep." The users were all heavily critical of management and some accused insiders of manipulation. VMS is seeking court orders that will compel Stockhouse to provide identifying information for the posters.

The petitions, filed at the Vancouver courthouse on Wednesday, Aug. 29, complain about material that appeared between October, 2010, and June, 2012, in the company's forum on Stockhouse. The first petition targets a user who posted under several variations of the alias "axeman." The company claims that he accused management of insider trading and market manipulation.

VMS VENTURES

VMS president John Roozendaal

The axeman posts, as quoted in an affidavit by VMS president John Roozendaal, included one on Nov. 5, 2010, that read, "I still make MONEY on this Crap but please YOU ALL should know its the BIGTIME CASINO of turning PAPER into CASH EXACTLY what ol Rooozy is doing!!!" Another post read: "Gotta love OL Gayle though Blowing off the stock DURING managements BIG PUMP and DUMP tour of the states and Shows!!!!" Axeman continued on Nov. 20, 2010, writing, "Oh now i got it BAGHOLDERS and the STENCH of management Improving SHAREHOLDER VALUE by DUMPING shares during the PUMPFEST of interviews and trade shows ... ."

The second petition complains of a series of posts written by the user "tamerackerdown," which started appearing on Feb. 2, 2012. VMS claims that those posts meant the company is incompetently managed and is worthless, among other things. One of the messages, as quoted in an affidavit by Mr. Roozendaal, stated: "They used to be an exploration Jr. Co. but now I'm really not sure what we could call them, Approx 9 million in the bank to pay managements exorbant Salaries ... . But they better be carefull with thier cash or some of them might have to go out and get a real job."

Another post by tamerackerdown, which appears to be referring to a boosterish message by another user, read: "He/she is either an employee of VMS, a bagholder from $1.50 or very stupid and has tunnel vision, and cannot see what is really happening to this stock. The chances of anyone making any real cash on this stock is very remote, anyone thinking a dolloar or over are dreamers."

The third petition targets posts that appeared under the name "nttg2005." The company complains that those messages left readers with the impression that members of management were "clowns" and were intentionally mismanaging corporate opportunities. One, dated Feb. 13, 2012, read: "The management has been disappointing and are lossing there credibility fast. it shows on all the other companies they own. The are busy shagging sheep instead of running a company."

Another dated Feb. 2, 2012, stated: "I have just about had enough of these clowns for management ... Basically Tammeracker is right they live high on the hog on our investments. I made some money was lookig for a good place to park it but this is not the place."

The final set of posts VMS complains of started appearing on April 30, 2012, under the user name "U3082014." Those posts allegedly left readers with the impression that the company's management is incompetent and is in a conflict of interest. A message by that user, as quoted in an affidavit by Mr. Roozendaal, read, "VMS owns 45% of NAN, also I believe CEO of VMS is CEO of NAN and 2 other companies so I guess he collects salary from 4 different companies? Is that not a conflict of interest?"

The petitions complain that the posts were freely available on the Internet for anybody to read, although Stockhouse has since deleted them. VMS asks that the courts order Stockhouse to provide IP addresses or other identifying information associated with the four users. According to the petitions, Stockhouse has indicated it will not oppose such an order.

Vancouver lawyer Andrew Aguilar filed the petitions on behalf of VMS Ventures.

VMS closed at 20 cents on Thursday, off a 52-week high of 45.5 cents.