Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Save the Scenic Santa Ritas filed a complaint Thursday alleging that the project’s developer has violated state law requiring disclosure of a past bankruptcy involving top officers. Rosemont accused of hiding bankruptcy link from state:
Save the Scenic Santa Ritas accused Rosemont Copper of illegally failing to disclose that a current and former director – Richard Warke and Donald Clark, respectively – were officers of a company that was involved in a high-profile Canadian bankruptcy in 1995.
The group complained to the Arizona Corporation Commission that Rosemont Copper is engaged in a “pattern of deception” dating back seven years.
“If Rosemont Copper is hiding a corporate bankruptcy from regulators and the public, what else are they hiding?” Vince Rabago, an attorney representing the group, said at a news conference Thursday.
The new complaint said that Rosemont Copper – and Augusta before Rosemont Copper formed in 2007 – has answered “no” seven years on an Arizona Corporation Commission disclosure form to the question of whether any Rosemont officer, director, trustee or incorporator had more than a 20 percent interest in another company that had been placed in bankruptcy.
The complaint said Canadian records show that Warke and Clark were officers of West Coast Plywood Co. Ltd., which went into bankruptcy in July 1995.
Besides calling into question Rosemont Copper’s incorporation and credibility, the failures to disclose, if done knowingly, are potential felonies, the complaint said.
State incorporation law makes a reference to bankruptcy disclosures that strongly suggests but doesn’t say explicitly that the disclosure is required (see below). Environmentalist attorney Rabago acknowledged it is not “artfully worded.” But Rabago said the ACC form makes the disclosure requirement clear.
“There’s no way that someone could read that form and say ‘I’m not required,’ ” Rabago said.
Arizona law says a company’s articles of incorporation must include:
“A brief statement disclosing whether any persons who at the time of its delivery are officers, directors, trustees, incorporators and persons controlling or holding over twenty percent of the issued and outstanding common shares or twenty percent of any other proprietary, beneficial or membership interest in the corporation and who have served in any such capacity or held a twenty percent interest in any other corporation on the bankruptcy or receivership of the other corporation.”
The complaint and supporting documents can be found at: http://www.scenicsantaritas.org/news
Video report from KVOA 4:
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