SEC Issues Trading Suspension of ARX Gold
On October 22, 2013, the SEC announced the temporary suspension, pursuant to Section 12(k) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), of trading in the securities of ARX Gold Corp. (“ARX Gold”).
ARX Gold was created in May 2012 through a reverse merger consummated with Daulton Capital Corporation; the ticker symbol, DUCP, was never changed. The new owners were a group headed by Asian billionaire Arun Pudur.
Pudur and his associates had purchased previously uneconomical gold mining properties in Queensland, Australia; they’d been told by Brian Smith, the purported inventor of a new mining technology, that with his help they could be mined for a profit.
Three months later, Pudur, who had been titular head of the company, resigned without explanation, and Brian Smith took over.
The SEC suspended because it had questions about the authorship and accuracy of a supposed feasibility study of the mining properties that had been appended as an exhibit to the company’s Form 10-K filed on September 4, 2013. On October 3, 2013, ARX Gold submitted an amended 10-K, “to delete an exhibit which had been erroneously filed,” without explaining that the exhibit deleted was the feasibility study. Moreover, the same study had been included as an exhibit to an 8-K filed by the the company on May 30, 2012. That 8-K has not been amended.
The suspension will remain in effect for ten trading days; the stock will reopen for trading on the Grey Market on the morning of November 5. Because DUCP will have lost compliance with Rule 15c2-11, broker dealers will not be permitted to make a market in the stock, or to publish quotations. The stock is likely to trade on the illiquid Greys forever, at increasingly lower prices.
The SEC has the option of bringing an additional enforcement action, in the form of a civil lawsuit, at a later date.
ARX Gold has not been a particularly active trader in recent months, and has not been promoted. It was not an obvious target for suspension. But despite its claim to operate in the mining industry, in reality it is a shell. Perhaps the SEC feared it might be sold once again, and pumped and dumped, and so moved to prevent that happening.
For further information about this securities law blog post, please contact Brenda Hamilton, Securities Attorney at 101 Plaza Real S, Suite 202 N, Boca Raton, Florida, (561) 416-8956, by email at [email protected] or visit www.securitieslawyer101.com. This securities law blog post is provided as a general informational service to clients and friends of Hamilton & Associates Law Group and should not be construed as, and does not constitute, legal and compliance advice on any specific matter, nor does this message create an attorney-client relationship. Please note that the prior results discussed herein do not guarantee similar outcomes.
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