Mill Offer Raising Questions

Tuesday, May 05, 2009 06:36 PM

Prince George, B.C.- Is it too good to be true?

The news of an offer to buy the Worthington Mackenzie pulp mill is causing a buzz, but it may not all be good.

Earlier today, Opinion250 reported that a company called Mackenzie Timber group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Range Gold Corp, had put an offer on the table to buy the mill. The offer was for $12 million cash, and $33 million in some other form ( perhaps shares).

Range Gold’s CEO is Donald Sheldon. It is alleged Sheldon put up the bail for a man accused (but not convicted) of money laundering 6 years ago and that is raising some eyebrows. A second man arrested in that investigation was Martin Chambers, who was eventually convicted and is serving time in Florida.

It is also alleged Worthington Properties CEO Dan White, (and at one time sole director of the company which owns the Mackenzie Mill) had links with Chambers in the 1990s. It should be noted White was charged and convicted of money laundering in 1998, that case involved illegal liquor sales. White served a 6 month sentence of house arrest.

The offer to buy the Mackenzie Mill is open until May 1^st of next year.

Meantime, Worthington properties has been ordered by the court in Alberta to sell four properties including the Kelly- Ramsey building that was gutted by a deliberately set fire in March. The asking price is $10 million, less than half the value of the mortgages on the property.

Worthington is also listed as owing more than $3 million to the Canada Revenue Agency. The for sale list includes three other properties which carry a combined price tag of $28.4 million.

The Worthington Mackenzie mill owes the District of Mackenzie about $2 million in municipal taxes, and the Province has been paying about a million a month to keep the pulp mill running at a level that would prevent environmental problems. It is expected the Province of B.C. will try to recoup those costs as well as the costs of clean up of chemical spill at the mill a few months ago.

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Posted on Tuesday, May 05, 2009 06:36 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: RUEZ on May 5 2009 8:00 PM

Time for the province to take it and sell it to someone who will give a damn.

Posted by: shockedjockey on May 5 2009 8:05 PM

What kind of reporting is this? What's wrong with posting bail for someone who's innocent until proven guilty? Whose eyebrows "are being raised," exactly? Links between White and Chambers are alleged -- alleged by who, exactly? What kind of links? Who are your sources? Why no attribution?

Maybe this is a case of once bitten, twice shy, but Opinion 250 should deal in facts, not innuendo and speculation.

This is an unbalanced, unfair article and I hope everyone takes it with a huge grain of salt.

Posted by: RUEZ on May 5 2009 8:16 PM

Ya heaven forbid a news organization should do a little digging into who's doing what? Maybe if someone had looked into the past of the original buyer we wouldn't be on the hook for the bill right now. If you want to be kept ignorant don't read the story.

Posted by: Wolfie on May 5 2009 8:28 PM

Isn't this the same website that gets upset when readers post things with innuendo and speculation?

There is no difference between the vagueness in this article and the usual "i heard that..." that is always posted here and leads to monthly rants from the administrators about how we should have the guts to name our sources, etc.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander, Opinion 250.

Posted by: Robin Hood on May 5 2009 8:40 PM

45 million for an idle pulp mill (with no chip supply) that the current owner paid 6.5 million for about a year ago.

Doesn't sound crazy at all....

Posted by: mwk on May 5 2009 8:52 PM

Ruez your right on the money. If Opinion 250 doesn't report on Northern BC issues who will do it?

There aren't exactly a lot of reporters around here. Other than the newspapers and Opinion 250, what else is there?

Some stories you won't be able to wait for all the facts to come out. I appreciate what reporters do because they are out there putting the spotlight on issues in our community.

Would it be great if people were all honest and didn't do bad things, of course. But this is the real world!!

Keep up the good work Opinion 250!!

Posted by: Andyfreeze on May 5 2009 9:05 PM

Good job Ben and staff!

Posted by: He spoke on May 5 2009 9:48 PM

sounds like a three card monty going on here, and the Province some how end up holding the bag

Posted by: kitkat on May 5 2009 10:15 PM

Hmm..., gotta agree with ruez on this one, but maybe (more than likely) O250 knows more than the rest of us think. Details people, details!

Posted by: kitkat on May 5 2009 10:17 PM

But I'm going to say thanks to this site for raising these questions, maybe it will save the tax payers millions, what the hell do I know anyways.

Posted by: kitkat on May 5 2009 10:18 PM

How is that for a flip flop ehh? I should be a politician.

Posted by: Eagleone on May 6 2009 6:05 AM

Interesting information. Maybe the province and the regional district should seize the assets for the overdue tax bill and work out a financing arrangement with the union to buy the company like the Americans did with GM and Chrysler.

Posted by: Twinkle on May 6 2009 6:58 AM

Sounds a little Shady to me!! Here we go again!!!!

Posted by: Andyfreeze on May 6 2009 9:29 AM

The government should be all over this,making sure that we don't get a repeat of the Worthington deal!
On that one, the ball got dropped without question.
The people of Mackenzie deserve much better!
Where are you Pat Bell...out kissing babies?

Posted by: Born in BC on May 6 2009 12:25 PM

This article was picked up by ForestWeb. Pretty impressive I would say (its a little like the AP of the forest industry). Congradulations.