Former Oilers owner accused of defrauding investor

Former Oilers owner accused of defrauding investors over Arizona gold mines
Andrew Topf | April 19, 2012

Peter Pocklington, the former owner of the Edmonton Oilers hockey team, is accused of making false claims about Arizona gold mines and defrauding investors out of millions, says a report in The Calgary Herald.



According to documents filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission, Pocklington “engaged in transactions, practices or courses of business that operated or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon investors.” The allegations have yet to be tested in court.

Pocklington, 70, is accused of selling unregistered securities, performing transactions as an unregistered dealer and making “untrue statements of material fact.” The documents allege that Pocklington misrepresented the amount of recoverable gold in surface mines scattered around La Paz County, Arizona, and also misrepresented his company’s ability to recover what gold did exist.

Pocklington, 70, is accused of selling unregistered securities, performing transactions as an unregistered dealer and making “untrue statements of material fact.” The documents allege that Pocklington misrepresented the amount of recoverable gold in surface mines scattered around La Paz County, Arizona, and also misrepresented his company’s ability to recover what gold did exist.

Pocklington “engaged in transactions, practices or courses of business that operated or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon investors,” the documents allege.

In Oct. 2009, Pocklington, living in California, formed a company called Crystal Pistol Resources, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The company was created to “acquire, own and operate” surface gold mines. In July 2010, the company stated an intent to raise $20 million through investment.

Over the next 14 months, Crystal Pistol raised at least $4.8 million from about 100 investors.

During this time, videos on the company website showed a Crystal Pistol geologist talking about finding gold in every test location.

“The CPR geologist represents that the Arizona Mining property is very promising for a gold investor,” according to the court documents.

Pocklington himself contributed direct quotes to the company newsletter; “This situation is a real go. Nothing now will stop it.”

In May 2011, investigators say, an employee of Pocklington, John McNeil, told a potential investor the company was processing a thousand tons of presumed ore a month and would soon have a cash flow of more than $300,000 per week.

That amount of ore did not correspond to documentation Pocklington had submitted to the local Bureau of Land Management. The documents Pocklington submitted allowed for site testing only, according to investigators.

Pocklington is alleged to have made claims to investors based on false analysis of gold estimates that “are not supportable with the methods currently available in the industry.”

In January 2012, investors were told that a company called Liberty Bell, also controlled by Pocklington, had acquired the assets of Crystal Pistol, but were not informed of how the change might affect their investments.

Investigators recommended that the Arizona Corporation Commission order Pocklington to cease and desist the actions, pay back the millions he gained from investors and be fined $5,000 for each securities violation proven.

“We emphatically deny the allegations,” McNeil said Monday. “We’ve been very conscientious and thorough in our testing and we’ve not told any of our investors basically any data that isn’t backed up by our 43-101 (industry report) analysis.

“The allegations, as far as us overestimating or inflating with regard to the amount of gold in the project, we see as a slam against our geology and against the geologists that put this 43-101 (industry report) together,” he said. “We stand behind it and we also deny any allegations that are levelled against myself and Peter. We’re not doing anything wrong.”

None of the allegations contained in the documents have been tested in court.

In 2009 Pocklington was arrested and charged with bankruptcy fraud. He is well known in Canada for leading the Edmonton Oilers to five Stanley Cup wins during the 1980s.


Former Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington speaks after pleading guilty to perjury in U.S. District Court in California on May 27, 2010.
Photograph by: Global Edmonton , edmontonjournal.com

rcormier@edmontonjournal.com

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