Ex-Burmese businessman,drug warlord Michael Kyaw Myint Hua Hufaces insider trading allegations

Alleged Burmese drug warlord Michael Kyaw Myint Hua Hu also faces allegations of insider trading.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, PNG

A former Burmese businessman appeared before a B.C. Securities Commission tribunal on Monday to face allegations of illegal insider trading.

BCSC enforcement staff alleges that Michael Kyaw Myint Hua Hu, who now lives in Surrey, bought nearly $900,000 worth of shares of Maple Leaf Reforestation Inc. in 2007 on the basis of information that had not been generally disclosed to the public.

Maple Leaf is a Calgary-based company whose shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange. At the time of the alleged offences, Hu served as the company’s chairman.

BCSC enforcement lawyer Derek Chapman, who is acting as co-counsel with Joyce Johner, told the hearing panel that evidence would show that:

• Hu met a woman named Lin Ping Tian through a Vancouver dating agency in 2006. Tian set up a CIBC online trading account, then gave Hu her password so that he could buy Maple Leaf shares for her.

• Hu told her the share price would increase and she would make money. For his efforts, Hu would take 10 per cent of the profits.

• Hu, meanwhile, was helping Maple Leaf develop a memorandum of understanding to establish a biodiesel plant in China.

• On Sept. 22, 2007, Hu sent an email to Maple Leaf president Raymond Lai: “Ask Chen Zhen give you the MOU to review it. Translate it, then make news. I will take the stock to $2 to get cash and pp [private placement] financing.”