KEITH JACKSON

THE PRESIDENT OF THE European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper (ESBC), Axel G Sturm (pictured), has accused two leading US companies and a Wall Street stockbroking firm of fraudulently manipulating the market for shares in Bougainville Copper (BCL).

And to back up his suspicions, Sturm has asked veteran corporate investigator and intelligence analyst, Christopher T Marquet, to add BCL shares trading to his sphere of interest.

“Currently [BCL] shares face major share price manipulation supposedly originating in the United States of America,” Sturm said, naming the US firms he believes are involved.

He said he believed the BCL share price could be as high as $3.20 if they were trading in a fair market. Yesterday the shares were trading at 60 cents.

“Although the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has repeatedly been alerted by the ESBC to stop fraudulent trading practices in BOC shares, they do not appear to be interested,” he said.

Sturm said that with only 27% of BCL shares in free-float (Rio Tinto have a 54% majority stake and the State of Papua New Guinea 19%), it is easier to influence the share price and makes the stock more vulnerable to fraudulent manipulation.

He said he believes these fraudulent practices involve traders in New York and Sydney.

“As the ESBC is only a small group of private investors (we own approximately 4%),” Sturm said, “we do not have a lot of means to fight against these fraudulent practices.

“Except one - we expose backdoor players and involved conmen on our homepage www.bougainville-copper.eu.

“Our homepage is the most complete anthology on BCL worldwide. It is also supposed to be the biggest information data base on a single company provided by investors for investors.”