More from Mark Hawthorne today....Link:...

More from Mark Hawthorne today....
Link:
http://www.theage.com.au/business/takeovers-panel-wont-play-ball-with-bolton-20090924-g4ra.html

Pesticide director

MELBOURNE investor Leo ''The Gun'' Khouri, who lost $50 million of shares in the collapse of Opes Prime, has emerged as the new director of listed pesticide research company BioProspect.

After Khouri was named as a non-executive director yesterday, the company's share price shot up 30 per cent, from just 2.1¢ a share to 3¢.

It made Full Disclosure wonder just how ''non-executive'' shareholders hope Khouri will be.

In an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange, BioProspect said Khouri had ''previously provided strategic and financial advice to BioProspect in his capacity as director and owner of Melbourne-based Gun Capital Management''.

According to the company, Khouri's expertise in ''public company governance'' will be of benefit to BioProspect.

Gun Capital Management owns 10 million BioProspect shares. Bejjal Ltd, the superannuation fund he owns with his wife Anne, controls a further 40 million shares, and Khouri holds 20 million shares in his own name.

That gives the new director 70 million shares, or 14.4 per cent of the company. He is also the single biggest option holder in BioProspect.

BioProspect yesterday notched up its biggest single day trading volume in two years, bringing the worth of the 70 million shares Khouri controls to $2.1 million, up $630,000 in a day.

For an eight-month period until March this year Gun Capital Management was controlled by Victoria Police officer Anthony Langdon - who also happens to be a non-executive director of BioProspect.

Senior Sergeant Langdon has been the subject of a police ethical standards department investigation into an allegation that he misused his position by making threats to Perth private detective Ron Dolliver.

Dolliver was hired to investigate John Stratton, who is wanted in South Africa as a suspect in the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble.

Dolliver alleged Langdon made the threat in Perth on November 14, 2007. Full Disclosure believes the ethical standards investigation found that the allegations against Langdon were not substantiated, as there was no evidence to corroborate the claim beyond Dolliver's statement.

BioProspect has a close relationship with Solagran, which purports to have a cure-all called Ropren that is effective in treating liver disorders. Solagran is the second-biggest shareholder in BioProspect after Khouri and has two representatives on the board - non-executive directors Peter Charles Pellegrino and Kamran Shamsi.