Gold Basin fires CEO for alleged misconduct

Gold Basin Resources (TSXV: GXX; US-OTC: GXXFF), a junior explorer where Canex Metals (TSXV: CANX) is reasserting control, terminated president and interim CEO Charles Straw last month, alleging serious misconduct that caused financial loss and breached stock exchange rules.

The dispute is tied to Canex’s takeover of Gold Basin launched in February following a 2020 spinoff. The recent move allowed Canex to install a new board at a March 16 shareholder meeting to get affairs in order at Gold Basin, whose shares the TSXV halted trading last May for failing to file financial results. Straw maintains he was the victim of cyber fraud.

“Gold Basin has terminated Charles Straw for cause,” the company said in a March 25 release. “What is not explained by Mr. Straw is why he wired large sums of money from Gold Basin’s corporate bank account to a private account he controlled before he ‘fell victim’ to wire fraud.”

Straw says he lost less than $50,000 after his email was hacked in 2024, that his bank covered $15,000 of the loss, and that the new board is retaliating after he didn’t support a plan to get shareholder support for the takeover. He says he reported the alleged coercion to the British Columbia securities regulator.

“The previous board, officers and legal counsel were aware that I was the victim of a cyber-scam, not a perpetrator of fraud,” he wrote in an email this month to Northern Miner Group’s Canadian Mining Journal. The allegations “form a pattern of behaviour and rumour mongering to discredit me,” Straw said.

Junior risks

The company stressed its findings were not court-proven and its investigation was ongoing. The situation highlights governance and fraud risks among junior explorers and the high stakes of gold projects at record bullion prices. Online investor forums can be found describing Gold Basin’s recent history, loans, a joint venture with Helix Resources (ASX: HLX) and past allegations.

Gold Basin and Helix have also been named as defendants in an Oct. 28 petition to the Supreme Court of British Columbia filed by shareholders, according to a Canex disclosure. Gold Basin failed to respond to the petition by the court deadline and to disclose the existence of the petition to shareholders, Canex says.

Gold Basin, a Vancouver-based explorer, holds the 42-sq.-km Gold Basin project in Mohave County, Ariz., about 300 km northwest of Phoenix. The project hosts near-surface oxide gold mineralization and had more than 800 historic and current drill holes into deposits up to 1.7 km in length. There’s been no resource filed on the project.

Canex retains claims surrounding the Gold Basin project, giving it exposure to the broader district beyond the core oxide zones held by Gold Basin Resources.

The Gold Basin district dates to 1870s prospecting but saw only small-scale lode and placer production, leaving a largely underdeveloped gold system that modern explorers are now re-evaluating as a bulk-tonnage oxide play.

Straw was appointed Gold Basin’s president in 2021. He is an economic geologist with more than 20 years’ experience in mining and had held executive and director roles at junior explorers, including a directorship at Volcanic Gold Mines (TSXV: VG; US-OTC: VLMZF).

Internal investigation

The Gold Basin board’s summary of its probe alleged “conversion for personal use and loss of company funds; misappropriation of corporate opportunities; causing the company to enter into transactions with parties in which Mr. Straw or his associates had a personal interest on financial and commercial terms which were neither fair nor reasonable to the company,” and breaches of Canadian securities law, the British Columbia Business Corporations Act, stock-exchange rules and a court restraining order.

Gold Basin said it sent Straw a March 16 termination letter outlining 15 breaches. The new board said it had not been provided with documents explaining why “large sums of money” were moved from the company’s corporate account into a private account Straw controlled before the purported fraud.

The release was “thoroughly vetted by our legal teams and is well supported by documentation and affidavits,” new Gold Basin CEO Shane Ebert said in an email this month to Canadian Mining Journal. Straw “failed to provide the company with details, financial records, or a plausible explanation,” Ebert said. He noted the release did not “directly state that Mr. Straw stole money,” but that Straw “wired large sums of money . . . to a private account he controlled.”

A British Columbia Securities Commission spokesperson declined to comment, noting confidentiality rules bar it from stating whether a company is complying with securities laws, is being investigated or will be subject to regulatory action.