Business
Touchstone Confirms CEO Settlement with the Alberta Securities Commission
CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / May 17, 2023 / Touchstone Exploration Inc. (TSX, LSE:TXP) ("Touchston...
About this update from Touchstone Exploration Inc
[{"type":"text","content":"Touchstone Confirms CEO Settlement with the Alberta Securities CommissionCALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / May 17, 2023 / Touchstone Exploration Inc. (TSX, LSE:TXP) (\"Touchstone\" or the \"Company\") announces that its President and Chief Executive Officer, Paul Baay, has entered into a Settlement Agreement with the Alberta Securities Commission (the \"ASC\") in relation to a breach of Section 147(4) of the Securities Act (Alberta) (the \"Settlement Agreement\").Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, Mr. Baay admits that he, on six occasions between December 2019 and April 2021, emailed draft Touchstone news releases to an employee of a regulated Canadian investment dealer firm, who was a registered dealing representative of Touchstone (the \"Registrant\"), and, in such capacity, was responsible for the Company's Employee Share Ownership Plan (the \"ESOP\"), prior to such news releases being broadly distributed to the public. Mr. Baay emailed the draft Touchstone news releases to the Registrant during the evenings or on the weekends when both the TSX and AIM markets were closed. The ASC noted that none of the Registrant, nor any persons with whom the Registrant might share the emails would have been able to transact in Touchstone securities with knowledge of the information contained in the releases. On each of the six occasions, Touchstone distributed the final versions of the news releases to the public before the TSX and AIM markets opened for regular trading on the next trading day. However, this conduct was determined by the ASC to be a breach of Section 147(4) of the Securities Act (Alberta), leading to the Settlement Agreement.The Settlement Agreement states that Mr. Baay demonstrated exemplary cooperation with the ASC in concluding the Settlement Agreement. Mr. Baay has paid the ASC $40,000 in settlement of the matter and will complete training in public company governance best practice. The ASC will ordinarily seek market access bans against directors and officers of public companies that engage in insider trading or tipping. However, due to the rather unique circumstances of this case including the early and significant degree of cooperation and acceptance of responsibility, as well as the absence of demonstrable harm to the capital market, bans have not been required by the ASC in this case. The ASC notes in the Settlement A...