Yellowknife (Dec 15/03) - Officials at the Department of Justice are looking into allegations of trading irregularities at Braden-Burry Expediting Limited (BBE).

However, they wouldn't comment beyond that at this point.

The charges of unfair practices are being made by BBE directors Jim Eccott and David Connelly.

Eccott and Connelly are slated to be kicked off the board of directors for Braden-Burry at the company's January meeting.

Eccott said he and Connelly are being kicked out because they raised concerns over majority shareholder Gordon Stewart's attempts to take his company private.

Eccott, an influential businessman with a history in both the Ekati and Snap Lake projects, said if Stewart wants to take his company private there's a proper way to do it.

First, an independent committee of the board, separate from the majority shareholder, is set up. Then an independent appraiser provides the company with a real market value for its shares, said Eccott.

That independent appraisal was performed by BDO Dunwoody chartered accountants and consultants, but Stewart disagreed with the share values arrived at by the independent appraisers, said Eccott.

Eccott declined to reveal the appraised value of the company.

"At this point I can't tell you. It's not public. Mr. Stewart declined the opportunity for making an offer and that happened within the last three months," said Eccott.

"He has to abide by the evaluation for two years if he wants to go private," said Eccott.

"A block of 200,000 shares traded the other day for the first time in months," Eccott said.

Connelly said these shares were not traded at independent appraised values.

Both Eccott and Connelly maintain that directors are legally bound to represent the interests of minority shareholders. Failure to properly represent minority shareholders could result in lawsuits against the board of BBE as a whole, where all the directors of the company are held equally responsible for lack of disclosure or any devaluation in the real market value for the shares.

Gordon Stewart declined to comment.