November 16, 1894 76 pages

& Spotlight on stuntman
Cotton Mather: 27

& The Visit at the Arts
Club Mainstage: 28

@ Classifieds....................85

B Crossword. cnn. 73
& Fashion...
inside Stories. 27
i North Shore Alert.....14
WS Sport... csesssseeneee LE
E Sunshine Gir!..............38

@ TV Listingg....................36

food

® The Granite Cafe is a
rock-solid affair: 33

@ Vancouver chef headed
for Melbourne: 52

Weather
Thursday: mainly cloudy,
50% chance of showers,
windy. High 7°C, low 2°C.

Office, Editorial 985-2131

Tongue tie

NO GUNS

Capilano Mall's new
Wal-Mart store reverses
decision on the selling of

firearms.

Display Advertising 980-0511

EARLY SNOW

Cypress, Grouse and Mount
Seymour get a jump-start
on the season with eartiest
openings on record.

NEWS photo Brad Ledwidge

THE OVER-40s took to the Capilano Rugby Club's rain-soaked field last Friday in an
exhibition rugby match. The club hosts its aiinual auction this Friday (see page 24).

NV co. seeks $15M funding despite investigation

A CONTROVERSIAL North Vancou-
ver software company is trying to raise
$15 million in a tax-assisted financing
despite a mounting RCMP investigation
of its former president,

By Brent Mudry
Contributing Writer

Evergreen International Technologies also
plans to launch a revolutionary new software
product at the Comdex computer show this week
in Las Vegas

There has been no shortage of
Evergreen's head office recently.

Armed with a detailed search warrant, the
RCMP seized extensive financial records in late
October.

“The police took a bunch of papers and ques-
tioned staff.” a witness told the New

Within an hour, the Vancouver Stock
Exchange (VSE) halted trading in the company’s
stock. The next vay the B.C. Securities

excitement in

Commission (BCSC) issued a cease-trade order
against company president Larry Kostiuk for
incomplete insider trading records.

Evergreen marketing director John Kostiuk
claims the controversy over his father has had
little effect on the company.

“We were set to go with Prime Minister
(Jean) Chretien’s delegation to sign a big deal in
China, but we decided to hold off'a little while.”
Kostiuk told the News.

The executive said Evergreen is poised to
sign a contract, worth $5 million over five years,
with the Chinese government.

John Kostiuk claims the company’s troubles
stem [rom a vendetta between his father and pre-
vious company directors and shareholders.

The various investigations have been prompt-
ed by an extended struggle by Evergreen director
Grant Sutherland to open up the company’s
books.

The RCMP, VSE and BCSC have all been
interested in aw $390,000 payment that Evergreen
made to Riva Yachts, a privale company owned
by Larry Kostiuk,

But John Kostiuk claims his father has actual-
ly been putting money into Evergreen and
bankrolling its operations for months.

“We are going to form a private company to
take over Evergreen’s business because of all the
money owing to Larry,” he told the News,

Evergreen hopes to boost its sales tenfold to
$5 million with a new product to be unveiled this
week and released in March.

E Notes, an advanced version of Post-It notes
for computers, will allow users to combine
sound, video and even handwritten notes, and
send them via electronic mail.

“We are excited ... there will be 180.000 peo-
ple at Comdex.” Kostiuk said.

Evergreen sent a six-person contingent to Las
Vegas last weekend, including its lawyer, Gary
Dunn,

Kostiuk says his father was set to go, but
decided to stay home to work with Vantage
Securities to raise millions in a federal govern-
ment tax-credit program,

“We may raise the overall amount to $50 mil-
lion,” John Kostiuk said.