SAN DIEGO COUNTY : Yuba Investor Considers Suit Over Failure to Shift Assests

A Vancouver shareholder in a Canadian subsidiary of Yuba Natural Resources said Wednesday he is organizing fellow investors and may consider taking legal action against Yuba because a planned transfer of certain assets to the subsidiary from Yuba has not yet occurred, jeopardizing the value of his stock.

Yuba also disclosed that it is negotiating with Bank of America to come up with a new loan agreement to replace the existing one, under which Yuba defaulted on a $5-million payment. According to Yuba’s most recent filing with federal regulators, the payment was due April 3.

Documents filed with the state Department of Corporations show that the Bank of America loan is secured by Yuba’s one-third interest in Yuba Placer Gold, a joint venture with Bond International Gold. Yuba 9,900-acre mining area 10 miles east of Marysville is also the site of silica and aggregate mining.

Robert Friedland of Vancouver said through a spokesman Wednesday that he, his parents and several other international investors bought Yuba American Gold Ltd. stock in a $4.485-million private placement in late 1987 in anticipation of the asset transfer from Yuba Natural Resources. Yuba American Gold stock was ultimately to have become publicly traded on Canadian exchanges, Yuba Natural Resources has said.

Without offering an explanation, a Yuba Natural Resources spokesman said Wednesday that the transfer of certain company mining assets to Yuba American Gold has been initiated and was to have been completed by now but has been delayed.

Yuba Natural Resources filed a deed and grant of rights last Nov. 30 with the Yuba County recorder’s office that seemed to transfer at least certain rights to the Yuba American Gold entity.

The deed and grant of rights, signed by Yuba Natural Resources Chairman Richard Silberman, called for the company to “sell, grant and convey . . . all gold, silver, mercury” and other rights to mine precious metals on Yuba property to Yuba American Gold.

Silberman was arrested April 7 and later charged with attempting to launder funds he thought came from Colombian cocaine traffickers but which actually came from a federal undercover agent.

One of the laundering transactions Silberman is charged with involved the exchange of Yuba American Gold stock for cash, according to an affidavit filed by federal authorities in support of Silberman’s arrest.

The affidavit also contained passages from a wiretapped conversation in which Silberman allegedly instructed a Yuba Natural Resources executive to send Friedland a Yuba American Gold shareholder list that excluded some shareholder names, including those of “Arokana,” the name under which the federal agent’s Yuba American Gold shares were listed.