TUESDAY
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SEPTEMBER 25, 2012 Vol. 117, Issue 185
110
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Special guest joins quartet Page 2
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF
ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALM SALMO
Gold ‘scam’ draws another warning
A CLEAN SWEEP
BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
Once bitten twice shy. A man who had his insurance licence suspended over one year ago in an “obvious scam” is back operating in the Greater Trail region. James Robert Milligen, 51, is no longer licensed with the Insurance Council of British Columbia (ICBC)—currently serving a fiveyear suspension—but he has continued to promote his scam to the public, the ICBC reported Monday. The group placed an advertisement in West Kootenay and Okanagan newspapers warning people that Milligen was back at it again, after an ICBC report of the Hearing Committee revoked his licence 18 months ago. Milligen is still recommending his clients invest money to fund the shipment of gold from Ghana to Canada, the same scam he tried to pull off when an ICBC hearing found him guilty in October, 2011. ICBC deputy executive director, Agnes Healey, said the council has had some inquiries from people in the community about Milligen and they have been advised he was again
working in the area. “The reason we are republishing (the warning) is it has come to our attention that he may still be operating for this scam,” she said. “Because the last ad we ran was some time ago, we thought it was appropriate that we put that ad out again.” Healey could not say exactly how many people called and who was affected by his original scam due to the confidential nature of the case. Milligen embarked on his scam after eight years in the industry as a life insurance agent. In pitching the Ghana “opportunity,” a hearing committee investigation found Milligen did not even conduct a cursory search of the Internet to verify it. Instead, it was found he took deliberate and improper steps to entice others to invest with him and “specifically preyed upon individuals who trusted him,” the hearing committee report read. The investment was not related to the sale of insurance products, and Milligen relied on his prior relationship with his clients to facilitate the potential investment.
See LICENCE, Page 3
Local videographer launches award-winning ski film Andre Nutini’s freestyle skiing video on iTunes BY BREANNE MASSEY Times Staff
TIMOTHY SCHAFER PHOTO
It is a sign of the times as fall descends on the Silver City, tinting the streets with a golden shade as Amy Lam of Double Happiness Café sweeps away the mantle of leaves falling on the sidewalk in front of her Bay Avenue restaurant.
Less than one year after graduating from the digital art and new media program at Selkirk College, a 23-year-old Trail man won for best cinematography at the Nike International Freestyle Film Festival (iF3) recently in Montreal. Local videographer Andre Nutini released the freestyle skiing video— ‘Hurt So Much’—with a group of four Austrian-based skiers called Legs of Steel (LOS) on iTunes Monday, a few days after winning the award. Nutini got involved with LOS and the project while he was still
an intern on a Nelson-based biking video, and began collaborating on ‘Hurt So Much’ with only a diploma in digital art and new media in hand and no film credits. But it was a fast ascension into the digital media ranks, one that has put his career as videographer on the radar. Initially, Legs of Steel brought him over to Austria to film one event in the film, and then right after that they talked about him making the whole movie, Nutini said. And he did. “It doesn’t feel like a job,” he said about his first production. “I mean, it is a lot of work, but it’s pretty cool to be able to do what you love for work, and work with your best friends.”
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