August 21, 2020 - 12:01 PM
CALGARY - The Alberta Securities Commission is alleging a Vancouver company made misleading statements when it claimed to be researching and developing for sale a cedar leaf oil vapour product to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
In a notice of hearing, the provincial regulator says statements made by Roadman Investments Corp. and CEO Luke Montaine in news releases in February and March would reasonably have been expected to affect the market price of the company's TSX Venture Exchange shares.
The ASC notice alleges the company and its subsidiary, CLOV BioPharma Corp., had conducted no research, had no plans to do so and did not have a sample of the COVID-19 virus to study.
It further alleges Roadman had no products nor any product line, despite the company announcing on March 26 it had received an order for 10,000 mL of cedar leaf oil product from its Hong Kong-based distribution partner.
The notice says the ASC ordered Roadman on March 30 to produce copies of agreements and supporting documents for claims in its news releases and, in response, Roadman clarified that it had done no research, had no coronavirus sample, and didn't have sufficient funds to buy the 200 litres of cedar leaf oil it claimed to have ordered.
The ASC says Roadman shares gained 35 per cent during February and March and daily trading volumes rose to an average of 3.6 million from 644,000 in the previous four months.
Montaine did not immediately respond to a phone request for comment. A hearing date is to be set in late September.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2020.
Companies in this story: (TSXV:LITT)
News from © The Canadian Press, 2020