Barkerville Gold {TSX.V: BGM} recently took out a court action against former CEO Frank Callaghan, alleging breach of confidential information to stake ground wanted by the company, and then offer it for sale to the company after staking it.

Callaghan has denied this in a reply to the court, stating the land was available to stake.

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By Mike Caswell.

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Frank Callaghan denies that he did anything wrong in acquiring a claim near Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.’s property. He says that the claim was available for staking and Barkerville had not taken the ground. He also denies using confidential information in acquiring the claim.

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The statements from Mr. Callaghan come in response to a lawsuit that Barkerville filed against him in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The company claimed that he and a former Barkerville contractor, Angelique Justason, used the company’s confidential information in staking the claim at issue. Mr. Callaghan then offered to sell the property to Barkerville, the company said.

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For his part, Mr. Callaghan contends that he did nothing wrong. In a response filed on Nov. 16, 2017, he says that the claim was available for anybody to acquire. Barkerville never owned the ground and it became available to the public on the website of the Mineral Titles Branch.