Caldera’s Estranged JV Partner Global Gold Corporation Under Criminal Investigation in Armenia

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Montreal - Monday, December 10, 2012 - Caldera Resources Inc. (the “Company” or “Caldera”), in its ongoing efforts to clarify the record and expose the nefarious and questionable tactics used by Global Gold Corporation (“GBGD”) and its CEO, Mr. Van Z. Krikorian, to push Caldera out of Armenia and the Marjan Project, publishes the following release.

Caldera had received a communiqué from the State Revenue Agency of the Republic of Armenia confirming that Global Gold Corporation's (“GBGD”) General Manager in Armenia, Mr. Ashot Poghosyan is under criminal investigation for financial crimes related to GBGD’s subsidiary which operates one of their gold properties in Armenia.

The letter signed by the Investigator, Mr. R. Mkrtchyan, states that:

“[o]n 17.03.2011 with the characters of the 1st part of 205 article of the criminal code of RA, according to activities of the director of «Mego Gold» LLC Ashot Poghossian which has entered obvious distorted data into the taxation documents, which are taxation basis and with this violated of paying large amount - 13.252.700 AMD tax, in the Investigation department of the State Revenue Agency of the Republic of Armenia has been initiated # 83156811 criminal case and on 21.03.2011 has been sent to the Criminal Department of the State Revenue Agency of Republic of Armenia. 

Investigation of this criminal case is in process.”

Bill Mavridis, the President of Caldera commented: “While this communiqué dates back to July of 2011, I recently received new information from a third Party confirming that this criminal investigation, which began on March 23, 2011, has now morphed into a much larger investigation. The investigation now includes elements related to the misappropriation of millions of dollars of investor funds, which were destined for GBGD’s gold mining projects in Armenia.  

“The source states that the investor funds were substantially misappropriated and partially embezzled at GBGD through the actions of Mr. Van Z. Krikorian, GBGD’s Chairman, CEO, and Corporate Counsel, by Mr. Ashot Poghosyan, GBGD’s General Manager in Armenia and by Mr. Jan Dulman, GBGD’s Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Ian Hague, Member of the Board of Directors of GBGD and GBGD’s controlling shareholder, apparently supported the alleged misappropriations. Mr. Hague is also a founder of Firebird Management LLC ( http://www.fbird.com), a hedge fund manager operating out of New York, NY, which is a major investor of GBGD.”

Mr. Van Z. Krikorian is also an active member the Armenian Assembly of America (the “AAA”) and is currently a Trustee of the organization. The AAA (http://www.aaainc.org) is a non-partisan Armenian-American advocacy organization in the United States, which is supposed to promote public awareness of Armenian issues and assist in humanitarian and development programs in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, while strengthening the U.S. - Armenia relationships.

Mr. Mavridis added: “Since joining GBGD in 2003, I believe Mr. Van Krikorian has abused his position with the AAA, which is a tax-exempt charity, and used his contacts to influence political leaders and civil servants in Armenia to benefit his personal interests in GBGD. In 2007, Mr. Krikorian somehow was able to extract a mining license on the Marjan project without even having certified or approved reserves from the “GKZ”, as is required under Armenian legislation. Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan, a former Minister of the Government of Armenia and an elected Deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia and the Chair of the National Assembly Permanent Committee on the Economy, has called the Marjan mining license illegal.” (See NR of December 5, 2012 - Republic of Armenian Politician Claims The Marjan License is Illegal).

As an emerging democracy, Armenia grapples with corruption and on December 5, 2012 Transparency International (“TI”) issued its new global rankings. Based on its Corruption Perception Index (“CPI”), TI ranked Armenia 105th of 176 countries up from 129th of 183 countries in 2011. TI is a global NGO with 100 chapters around the world. In Armenia the chapter operates under the name, Anti-corruption Center of Armenia (http://transparency.am). The CPI ranking places Armenia at the same level with Mexico for 2012, but Armenia surpasses Russia, which ranks 133rd of 176 countries on the CPI (Canada is ranked 9th of 176 countries and the USA is ranked 19th of 176). 

TI defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. TI has issued several reports on Armenia over the years. In its reports it states that the Judiciary in Armenia is highly susceptible to political interference and that Armenians regard the law-enforcement and judicial systems as the most corrupt public institutions.

The Armenian Government led by President Serzh Sargsyan has attacked corruption, hence the noticeable improvement in ranking on the CPI from 2011 to 2012. Through His Excellency’s mandate and more recently in November 2012, the President has pledged to crack down on graft throughout his leadership. His Excellency has recently instructed the Armenian government to take “resolute” anti-graft measures so that Armenia can effect changes that are tangible and visible.

Mr. Mavridis concluded by stating: “While corruption has been tackled during President Sargsyan’s mandate, the fact is that corruption continues to exist in Armenia and I believe, Mr. Van Krikorian, GBGD’s CEO, is continuing to misuse his influence to attempt to delay or stop the criminal investigation, which by definition is a form of corruption.”

Further information on this matter can be viewed on our website www.calderaresources.com on the tab labeled News.

Material documents relating to the Arbitration case (No. 50 180 T 00674 10) filed by Caldera against Global Gold can be accessed on the Caldera website under the tab, Arbitration.
 

Cautionary Statement
The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made.

Additional information related to the Company is filed electronically on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For additional information:

Contact:

Bill Mavridis
President
Caldera Resources Inc.
1155 Rene-Levesque Blvd. West
Suite 2500
Montreal, Qc., H3B 2K4
Tel: 514-813-9200

new email: Bill.Mavridis@calderaresources.com
web site: http://www.calderaresources.com

Republic of Armenia Politician Claims the Marjan License is Illegal

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Montreal - Wednesday, December 5, 2012 – Mr. Bill Mavridis, the President of Caldera Resources Inc. (the “Company” or “Caldera”) issued the following release with respect to certain media reports published in Armenia, stating the Marjan Special Mining License HA-L 14/256 (the “License”) was issued illegally to Global Gold Corporation’s (“GBGD”) subsidiary on April 22, 2008.

This statement was made by Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan, the former Minister of Environmental Protection (2001 to 2007), who currently sits as an elected Deputy of the National Assembly (“NA”) of the Republic of Armenia and Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs.

These recent developments revolve around a public scandal in Armenia, between GBGD and the former Minister of the Environment of Armenia, Mr. Ayvazyan, over bribery claims made by GBGD back in 2007.

In a recent interview on Armenian Television, Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan stated:

There has never, in the history of RA, been an example where a mining license is given for a mine whose resources are not confirmed. This means that without knowing the amount of material in a mine, I give it to someone else to take that material away. However, I don’t know why Global Gold receives a mining exploitation license for Marjan mine whose resources are not confirmed. Meaning, no one can say how much gold it contains (translation)- see Caldera’s President’s Log at: http://www.calderaresources.com/p/the-presidents-log.html).

If the allegations made by Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan are true, that the License was issued to GBGD without approved reserves and it is canceled, then Mr. Van Krikorian and GBGD would be potentially liable for fraud. Indeed GBGD may actually be mixed up in the corruption of certain government official, to game the system in their favor to extract this License from the Government of Armenia.

In early 2011 Caldera commenced a review of the License in preparation for the Arbitration case, which Caldera filed against GBGD. During the review Caldera discovered that the reserves posted in the License were historical in nature and the data reported in the License was extracted from a 1995 report prepared by the local geological survey team from Southern Armenia and not from the data prepared and filed by GBGD's exploration team for verification and approval by the Armenian State Natural Resources Agency, also referred by its Russian acronym, the “GKZ”.

Also in early 2011, Caldera made requests to the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources in Armenia for any and all correspondences between GBGD and all government bodies, related to the Marjan project. The search uncovered numerous documents that were never handed over to Caldera during our initial due diligence review in 2009 and 2010.

Of interest was one letter issued by the Armenian State Natural Resources Agency (“GKZ”) on December 26, 2008, signed by its Chairman Mr. Khachik Saponjian. The letter was informing GBGD that their application for verifying and confirming their reserves, submitted on December 28, 2007, was terminated due defects and omissions in their application. Oddly enough, the letter was issued 8 months after the License was given to GBGD. The translated letter reads as follows:

No 020 – N/ 95

26.12.2008
To Mr. A. Boghosyan

The Director of “Global Gold Hankavan” LLC

Respectable Mr. Boghosyan

By the letter of the Agency of State reserves of the Minerals of RA Natural No 020/11 dated August 05, 2008 you had been informed, that the processing of the state mineral expertise of the justification of the documents of the parameters of the conditions of Marjan polymetallic deposit presented by your letter dated December 28, 2007 to the Agency was delayed because the authors of the documents didn’t ensure that revealed defects and omissions are fixed.

Taking to consideration, that up to date the situation with fixation of the documents is the same, the expertise of these materials has been terminated.

You can take back your Report from the Agency of State Reserves of Minerals of the Administration of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources RA.

(s) Kh. Saponjian
By hand : Documents received on 29.12. 2008
(s)Karapet Vardanian

It is evident that the License was issued without verified and approved reserves by the GKZ, as is required under Article 28 of the Mining Code (2002) and the application for the License did not include approved reserves as stipulated under Article 37 of the Concession Code (2002).

Mr. Mavridis stated: "Given the context of our transaction with GBGD and emails I received from Mr. Van Krikorian and Mr. Ashot Poghossyan in 2009, where they admit that they were still working on the reserve calculations, I personally believe Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan, when he claims the License was issued illegally.

“From the facts outlined here, one can clearly adduce that Mr. Van Krikorian and GBGD were aware that the License issued on April 22, 2008 did not include certified and approved reserves from the Armenian State Natural Resources Agency. Considering that that Mr. Van Krikorian is also operating other mining properties in Armenia, he knew or should have known that it is impossible to receive a mining license without certified and approved reserves. To make matters worse, Mr. Van Z. Krikorian concealed the “termination” letter issued by the GKZ from Caldera to fraudulently induce Caldera into entering into an agreement with them to benefit from payments from Caldera.

"At the time, It never occurred to me that the License was issued illegally, considering Mr. Krikorian signed an Officer's Certificate in April 20, 2010 claiming “there are no circumstances which are likely to give rise to the revocation, suspension, modification or non-renewal of the mining license”.

“I believe these developments will help Caldera to continue its fight to protect its rights and maintain its interests in Armenia.

“I will be reporting back on this matter as soon as I have additional information.”

Cautionary Statement
The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made.

Additional information related to the Company is filed electronically on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For additional information:

Contact:

Bill Mavridis 
President
Caldera Resources Inc.
1155 Rene-Levesque Blvd. West
Suite 2500
Montreal, Qc., H3B 2K4
Tel: 514-813-9200

new emails: Bill.Mavridis@calderaresources.com web site: http://www.calderaresources.com