OSC takes aim at firm's investor chat rooms

Grant Robertson

For the past several years Agoracom Investor Relations Corp. has run a burgeoning Internet forum for attention-starved mining, energy and tech companies, where investors could gather to muse about the stock they hold in those firms.

But what the companies were never told, the Ontario Securities Commission alleges, is that much of the online chatter about those stocks was instead the work of Agoracom's own employees.

Operating under dozens of online aliases, and sometimes holding fake conversations with themselves, the staff actively tried to push up share prices, the regulator alleges.

In documents filed Thursday, the OSC alleged representatives of Toronto-based Agoracom made more than 24,000 online posts under more than 670 fake names to promote stocks in firms it represented.

“The representatives created fictitious usernames and posed as investors blending in with other users, investors and interested persons,” the OSC alleged.

“On occasion, Agoracom staff conversed with themselves on the forums using different aliases.”

None of the allegations have been proven.

George Tsiolis, the company's founder, said Agoracom will defend itself against the allegations, which he called a misunderstanding. The company was preparing a more detailed response Thursday night.

The OSC alleged that for a fee and some stock options in the companies it represented, Agoracom oversaw Internet chats from September, 2006 to July, 2009, that involved fake postings.

Agoracom promoted itself to companies as a place where investors could hold credible, moderated discussions on stocks.

But the regulator alleged that Agoracom representatives “as part of their daily responsibilities,” were required to post anonymously to the Internet forums of the companies who signed up for the service.

Several of the company's staff had between 40 and 50 aliases, and some had up to 200, the OSC alleged. Employees were required to make a requisite number of posts per hub per day or risk having their pay docked, the regulator said in its statement of allegations.

Some of the postings originated from Mr. Tsiolis's Toronto home, and many on the site were used to promote stocks in the companies who paid for the service, the OSC alleged.

In exchange for its services, Agoracom collected a monthly fee and stock options in each of the companies it represented, the OSC said, and the stock options were equal to 250,000 shares or 0.5 per cent of the firm's stock. The OSC alleged Agoracom stood to gain from the online postings, since they could induce other clients to sign up, and to increase the value of its own options. “Neither the public users nor Agoracom's clients were aware that representatives of Agoracom were posting on their hubs using aliases,” the OSC alleged in the documents. “In fact, [Agoracom] knowingly deceived clients about the traffic and activity generated on their hubs.”

The head of Vancouver-based mining company Bard Ventures Ltd. said he was shocked by the allegations. Eugene Beukman, president of the company that trades on the TSX Venture exchange, said he paid the company “a few thousand dollars” along with options to provide an online forum for investors to discuss his mining projects. He said the moderated forum appeared more responsible than the unmoderated chat boards that can be populated by short-sellers and the like.

However, Mr. Beukman said he didn't see much impact from the service, since his shares have been stuck at about 10 cents for the past year.

“If the stock was trading at a few dollars, I'd be thinking ‘Ok, it's working guys,” Mr. Beukman joked of the allegations. “But whatever they were doing wasn't working for me as of yet.

“I thought this was always decent, organized. I've never had any reaction on my share price because of whatever was posted or not posted on this. My share price was normally regulated by news with exploration results.”

The OSC alleged Agoracom “took steps to actively conceal the fraudulent posting activity.” In March 2009, when an online poster revealed he was an Agoracom representative posting with an alias, the company posted a statement condemning that person's actions. The statement said the actions were carried out by a single representative and that Agoracom would be taking steps within 60 days to ensure it didn't happen again.