Frank Timiş

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Frank Timiş (born Vasile Timiş in 1965) is a controversial Romanian-Australian businessman living in London, United Kingdom, with interests in mining and oil extraction industries. The Sunday Times estimates his wealth at £80m ($145m), and Sunday Times Rich List 2005 ranks him as the 607th richest person in Great Britain. The Romanian magazine Capital estimates his wealth at $290m, Timiş being considered the 9th richest Romanian.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Companies in Australia 3 Gabriel Resources 4 Regal Petroleum 5 African Minerals (was Sierra Leone Diamond Company) 6 European Goldfields 7 References

[edit] Early life

Born in Borşa, Maramureş County, he graduated a vocational school for auto mechanics. He left Romania, and after crossing Yugoslavia by foot in 40 days, he settled as a refugee in Perth, Australia.^[1]

In Australia, he was convicted three times for drug issues, first time in 1984, when he was fined Aus$1,000 for possessing marijuana. In 1989, he gave a heroin sample of 0.7 grams to an undercover policeman and told him that he'd sell another 227 grams later, but he then tried to cancel the deal as he realized his client was a policeman. He was convicted of possession of heroin with intent to supply in 1990 and fined Aus$10,000.^[2] In 1991, as the police searched his house, 14 grams of heroin were found in his garden and further three grams hidden in his underwear. He got away with only a Aus$17,000 fine, as he convinced the judges that he was a drug addict.^[3]

[edit] Companies in Australia

Timiş started his own transport company in Australia, which owned only one truck driven by himself. However, it ended up badly, as it went bankrupt in 1986 with debts of 15,806 AUD. According to Jurnalul Naţional, Timiş failed to declare this fact in the CV he published when he listed the company Gabriel Resources on the Toronto Stock Exchange, as required by law.^[3]

In 1992, he became the CEO of Morwest Holdings Pty Ltd and the first of his business in the gold mining. Timiş and two Australian miners dug for six months for gold in a region called Mosquito Creek, but the result was a failure. In the meantime, he founded other three companies: Riverdale Mining, Timis Corporation and Carpathian Investments, together with Ioana Timiş and his sister, Ioana Majdik, however, these companies were liquidated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as they did not respected the ASIC standards. ^[3]

Another failure was the company Pneumatic Systems International Pty Ltd, also founded and presided by him since April 1995. In the CV he sent to the Toronto stock exchange, Timiş claimed the company worthed 150 million AUD. In 2001, he quit and kept only 11.6% of the company, administered via a new company Regal Group Services, in the British Virgin Islands tax haven. According to an ex-manager of the company, in 2003, those shares were worthing under 1,500 AUD.^[3]

Regal Group Services changed its name and headquarters and it's currently listed on the London stock exchange as Regal Petroleum. This company is associated with a Romanian company, Global Mineral Resources, owned by a son of the former Romanian senator of the Democratic Party, Teodor Hăucă, who used to be secretary of the Economic Commission of the Romanian Senate between 1996 and 2000.^[3]

[edit] Gabriel Resources

Main articles: Gabriel Resources, Roşia Montană

In 1995, Timiş founded Gabriel Resources NL Australia and in the autumn of the same year, the Romanian state-owned mining company "Regia Autonomă a Cuprului din Deva" (RAC) announced that it searches a partnership with a foreign company for the mining of precious metals from the tailings in Roşia Montană and Gurabarză-Brad. However, Jurnalul Naţional claims that it has collaboration documents signed by RAC Deva and Gabriel Resources one day before the announce was published, on September 4, 1995. Also, RAC claimed it received several offers, including from another Australian company, Lycopodium Pty Ltd., but that company denied that.^[3]

According to ASIC, in April 1996, Gabriel Resources NL had financial problems with its creditors, including the National Australia Bank Ltd and Timiş started a new company, Gabriel Resources Limited, registered in the Jersey tax haven. The mining contract was redirected to the new company.^[3] The contract was later changed to allow Timiş an 80% participation in the joint company. The Romanian Agency of Mineral Resources announced the Ministry of Industry that the new contract is unfavourable for the Romanian state, but this note was left unanswered.^[4]

Timiş associated with another controversial Romanian businessman, Ovidiu Tender (who was eventually arrested in another affair). According to Academia Caţavencu, Tender had access to various databanks of the Romanian research institutes of mineralogy and got data on the area. His company also hired relevant scientists and an ex-officer of the Topographic Department of the Romanian Ministry of Defence who cartographied the area. ^[4]

Gabriel Resources sent 80 tones of ores to a research lab in Australia to investigate the content of gold. The result was that the ore was high on gold and the market value of Gabriel Resources soared to $75 million and Frank Timiş obtained a $3 million loan from the Rothschild bank in the United States. Between 1999-2000, the area exploited was changed from 12 km² to 22 km² and then 42.8 km². ^[4]

The resulting project in Rosia Montana has been a source of much controversy, with local people lining up on either side of the issue and some international and national environmental groups joining the opposition. One of the sources of controversy involved the method used for mining: gold cyanidation, which would pollute the area. The company hopes eventually to extract 300 tons of gold and 1600 tons of silver from that area but the project is currently on hold.

[edit] Regal Petroleum

Main article: Regal Petroleum

Regal Petroleum, founded by Timiş in November 1996 was listed on the London Alternative Investment Market and owned some oil and gas resources in Romania and Ukraine. However, it became famous after the September 2003 acquisition of 60% of an oilfield located in Kavala, Greece. Timiş claimed that his company's survey team found one of the largest finds of oil in Europe: up to a billion barrels. The oil allegedly had so much pressure that the drilling platform was close to be destroyed by it. ^[5]

This announcement drove Regal's share price up to a peak of 509p, the company's market value reaching £500m, being one the highest valued companies of the Alternative Investment Market. Many private investors and respectable institutions (including Merrill Lynch, Commerzbank, Artemis and Schroders) invested in this company more than £45m. Timiş sold off the main assets of Regal soon after the investments reached the peak, without informing the directors and shareholders^[6] and resigned from the function as chief executive of the company.^[7]

However, by mid-2005, the bubble burst and it was clear that there was little oil in Regal's oil field and the flow rates were as low as 30 barrels a day and "deemed to be non-commercial". ^[5] In a few hours, the stock fell by more than 60% and as of June 2006, the share price is at 48.75p, less than 10% of the peak price. In 2005, its value was still worth about £120m, and had cash reserves of £37m, but due to lack of any real source of income, the reserves reached only £15m at the end of the year, as the company saw losses of £50m in 2005.^[8] In February 2006, Regal lost its Ukraine gas production license in a trial.^[9]

In June 2005, an environmental group, Alburnus Maior, asked the Romanian Supreme Court, under the freedom of information laws, whether Timiş was under any investigations and the answer was that his name was linked with three dossiers investigated by the organised crime department. However, Timiş denied all these. ^[10] Later queries to the Romanian administration on this subject were given the answer that there are no investigations concerning Timiş. ^[11]

Due to the collapse of this company, the Alternative Investment Market decided in 2006 to toughen regulations for companies in the natural resources sector and to hire experts who would prevent such booms followed by crashes in the future.^[12]

The company has, however, recently been given its licences back which had been frozen by the government, and has begun to produce oil again.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] African Minerals (was Sierra Leone Diamond Company)

In 2005, the Timiş Trust bought 30% of the shares of the Sierra Leone Diamond Company, via the Trust's Bermuda-registered Timis Diamond Corporation Limited. SLDC holds mineral rights over a third of the area of Sierra Leone in the northern part of the country,^[13] including some important diamond fields and the Tonkolili & Marampa Iron Ore Projects. The company is also exploring for uranium at Lovetta, and for gold and base metals in the Sula Mountains, Gori Hills and Nimini Hills. On 16th August 2007 the AIM-listed company was renamed African Minerals Limited (AMI.L) to reflect these other interests.^[14]

Timiş, who is non-executive chairman of the company, increased his shareholding to 34% in June 2006^[15] and to 34.6% (40,875,002 shares) in September 2006.^[16] In August 2007 the company was worth £250m (US$500m).

[edit] European Goldfields

Frank Timiş bought 15% of shares of Yukon-based company European Goldfields in 2000 and later increased his participation to 24%. ^[17] European Goldfields currently owns 65% of the shares of "Hellas Gold" a mining company in Greece, which has three mining projects, Stratoni, Skouries and Olympias and two companies in Romania: 100% of the shares of European Goldfields Deva (with projects at Voia and Cainel) and 80% of the shares in Deva Gold, Certej, Bolcana and Băiţa-Crăciuneşti.^[18]

[edit] References