BC Business
finance | BCBusiness
According to the commission’s notice of hearing, Weiqing Jane Jin, a partner in a Beijing law firm, was hired in 2009 as a consultant to a Vancouver law firm, which the commission declines to name because the firm is not involved in the charges. According to the notice of hearing, in 2011, Jin was working with Hathor Exploration Ltd., a client of the law firm, when Hathor entered into a confidentiality agreement with CGNPC Uranium Resource Co. Ltd., a nuclear power company that was interested in Hathor’s uranium property holdings. On August 15, the notice states, Jin transferred $50,622.06 into her self-directed cash trading account, and buy August 18 had bought 9,000 shares of Hathor at an average price of $2.85 a share. On August 19, another company, Cameco Corp., made a surprise offer to acquire Hathor. The commission’s notice of hearing states that Jin was copied in on correspondence between her law firm and Hathor that discussed the Cameco offer. On August 22, the notice states, Jin bought another 3,000 shares of Hathor at $2.76. Before the opening of trading on August 26, Cameco disclosed its offer to the public. Hathor’s stock price closed that day at $3.88 a share, up 45 per cent from the previous day’s closing price of $2.67. On September 7, the notice states, Jin sold all 12,000 of her Hathor shares at $4.20 a share, 49 per cent above her average purchase price, representing a profit of $16,424. BCSC staff allege that Jin breached securities laws by purchasing and trading securities before the material information was made public. These allegations have not been proven. The BCSC will apply to set dates for a hearing into the allegations before a panel of commissioners on September 3.