"Smoking gun" ready to emerge from within Crocus?

(posted Jan. 29)

As the gloom continues to descend over the ranks of the ever-diminishing number of employees left at Crocus (One has to feel sorry for most of them - they have  been victimized by the machinations of people at the top who took what was once one of the top l.s.i.f.'s in Canada and turned it into a national disgrace.), the question who will blow the whistle on what was going on takes on ever-increasing importance. Sources have it that one individual who was very close to the top is considering whether to spill the beans.
Of course, this is an extremely dicey situation and you can be sure that Doer's boys are on the lookout for any potential turncoats. Stay tuned for further details. 

The Empire Strikes Back

(posted Jan. 28)

         Crocus unveils new willingness to be totally "transparent" in dealing with shareholders.                  (Excuse me for wanting to throw up)

Unfortunately,  fog surrounding new supremo Alfred Black makes it impossible to discern anything

In a series of totally underwhelming announcements designed to deflect criticism and continue the guessing game as to just what the hell is going on with Crocus, Alfred Black, interim CEO of Crocus and loyal NDP apparatchik, emerged from the shadows on Thursday, January 27, to begin a series of media interviews designed to reveal absolutely nothing.
Black, who is obviously well coached by Crocus spin meister Bob Jones, (who, incidentally, reemerged from a short-livesd stint at the U of M doing who knows what to return to his natural role as chief propogandaist for Crocus), proved himself maddeningly difficult to pin down on anything.
"When will Crocus announce its new share price?" he was asked repeatedly, by such media luminaries as Richard Cloutier and Krista Erickson.
Not wanting to yield the least bit of information, Black would only hint that the new share price might be revealed some time before the end of this century.
But, not to worry, Black went on to assure angry Crocus investors. Crocus is embarked on a series of confidence building measures as it moves "forward". (Gee, I thought he was going to say that Crocus intends to move backward. I didn't know they had a forward gear.)
As for the question whether Crocus shares have been artificially inflated in the past, Black was decidedly apopleptic at the mere suggestion that Crocus may have been playing fast and loose with share valuations for years. After all, what's so unusual about a share price drop of $1.10 in one day (as happened on Sept. 24), followed by a total halt to the sale and redemption of shares on Dec. 10?
That sort of thing happens all the time (Haven't you ever read "Alice in Wonderland"?). Never mind that Crocus had to have been doing something malevolent with its finanacial reporting to have got into the mess that it has...Alfred Black does not want to talk about the past. What's done is done - come on, folks, forget that you're about to see your Crocus shares reduced to a fraction of what they were worth just a couple of years ago - we must move on!

Cloutier and Erickson see through Blacks' patent B.S.

Now that some of the heavy hitters in the media have become much better briefed as to Crocus's constant pattern of obfuscation, dissembling, and total disregard for any accountability to shareholders, Crocus spokespersons had better get used to a very rough ride in the media from now on.
Oh for the days when Bob Jones could simply pick up the phone to Martin Cash of the Free Press and dictate a puff piece that could be guaranteed to pump up Crocus's image among the rubes out there who have been buying Crocus's swill for years.
Cloutier especially, has the bit in his mouth now. It took him a while to realize how crafty and devious Crocus could be in the way it hides the truth about what is really going on, but Cloutier wasn't alone in ignoring the warnings from this writer (along with John Loewen) that began three years ago predicting that  Crocus was a house of cards that was going to collapse. His insistence on cutting through the crap that Alfred Black and Bob Jones were trying to dish out was fabulous. Unfortunately, if nothing else, Crocus does an excellent job at training its mouthpieces to avoid answering any serious questions whatsoever. (These guys must be taking lessons from Doer.)
Again and again, Black was asked whether valuations of individual companies had been inflated in the past. Not one to flinch, Black continued to insist throughout each interview that there was never any tampering with valuations. Of course, he also said that no one will ever see any of those valuations - even of companies that have long disappeared from the scene. We're just going to have take his word for it, okay, damnit! Gee, how many times does a guy have to tell you: "Everything's going to turn out all right, folks - the iceberg that just hit this ship is nothing to worry about."
The other poor souls who are still left at Crocus must be thinking: "Hey, Umlah - how come you got to abandon ship ahead of the rest of us and end up taking over your father-in-law's company?"
And Sherman, when are you going to emerge from under your cone of silence? Oh sorry, your lawyers have you gagged, right? Remember when you told us that True North was suffering from "an embarrassment of riches"? You could do the  Pinocchio act so much better than Black. I can hardly wait for you to resurface so that you can look me in the eye and tell me again that everything is just fine with Crocus...the way you did last August when you and Laurie Goldberg tried to reassure me that everything was just great. Gee, I miss you guys. You could have been a contender, Sherman...


Gerrard and Loewen score heavily on Canada Now

(posted Jan. 27)
Kudos to Jon Gerrard for finally getting into the game. Thanks to some dynamite material that had been given to him showing that the NDP government was almost certainly aware that something was seriously wrong with Crocus, yet chose to bury its head in the sand, Gerrard was able to team up with John Loewen to thoroughly embarrass NDP buffoon minister Jim Rondeau.
Rondeau's only defence was to divert all responsibility for monitoring Crocus to the Manitoba Securities Commission. Loewen was able to devastatingly undermine Rondeau's attempt to slough off any responsibility for having failed to properly monitor Crocus's suspicious financial reports by pointing out time and time again that the government owns 2 million shares in Crocus, that it appoints a member to the board, and that it replaced its appointee in March, 2004.
The government's act is wearing thin. Still, the trail should now lead to the Manitoba Securities Commission, which never did a thing to protect Crocus shareholders' interests.
We wonder whether Bob Bouchard of the MSC will finally start to explain his own inertia when it came to delving into Crocus's highly suspicious financial reports.

Rumours of government bailout put to rest

Rumours of a government bailout of Crocus surfaced last week in a column by ancient Free Press hack Fred Cleverley. After checking with some authoritative sources, it was learned that there is nothing to these rumours.
Following are excerpts from an e-mail from someone who is fighting on behalf of Crocus shareholders.

"I'm not hearing of a financial bailout but I have heard rumors that they are looking at changes to the legislation to remove the pacing reqiurements (requirement to invest 70% within 1 year) and changing the requirement to hold 15% as liquid assets  Both of these changes would relieve the cash crunch for a few years  They could use all their cash ($34M) and any new sales for redemptions.  This would help keep it afloat for a few years and give them some breathing room.  It may be that these two changes could be done by order in council as regulations without opening up the legislation. "
 
Still, one can easilty see why the government would want to bail out Crocus
To save their necks - is why. The NDP government is absolutely panicked over the fallout that will ensue from a Crocus collapse. And if, for one moment, you don't think that this government was absolutely connected to Crocus in so many ways, then I have a restaurant to sell you on Glen Murray's bridge.

Here's how one observer describes the government predicament:
"They are into up to their eyeballs. Whether you start with the Manitoba Federation of Labour (who controls it), or the Board member they appoint, or the Manitoba Securities Commission (which they appoint) or the Workers Compensation who have had a huge influence, or their control via the legislation and were induced to buy by the Credit Unions and the Labour (they allowed the increase in capitalization each year), etc. etc. they cannot duck.
As a very astute member of the financial community said: I would have expected this shafting of the little guy by the Tories, but NEVER by the NDP of their own! (Most of the investors were not sophisticated, Unions)."