October 9, 2013 Securities

Montréal - Claudé Hamel and Carole Bellemare recently pleaded guilty to a series of charges relating to illegal distributions by Tanzanite Inc. and Tanzanite 2005 Inc. and were fined a total of $662,500.

More specifically, on September 23, 2013, before Justice Labelle of the Court of Québec for the district of Montréal, Claudé Hamel, former business partner of Nil Lapointe, the sole officer of Tanzanite Inc. and Tanzanite 2005 Inc., acknowledged that he aided these two companies with making distributions without a prospectus on 38 occasions and illegally pursued activities as a securities dealer on 58 occasions. He was fined a total of $620,000.

On September 30, 2013, before Justice Boisvert of the Court of Québec for the district of Montréal, Carole Bellemare also acknowledged that she aided the two companies with making distributions without a prospectus twice and illegally pursued activities as a securities dealer seven times. She was fined a total of $42,500.

The amounts these two individuals were fined, which stems from a joint recommendation by the parties, represents two and a half times the minimum penalty set by law.

The Autorité des marchés financiers ("AMF") is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec's financial sector.

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