45 Facts About Murray Pezim

Murray Pezim, better known as "the Pez", was a Canadian businessman.

Murray Pezim was a flamboyant mining promotor and stockbroker that promoted a number of gold investment over his lifetime.

Murray Pezim was one of the most colorful and flamboyant "characters" selling shares in his companies on the Vancouver Stock Exchange.

Murray Pezim was born in Toronto, the son of Romanian Jewish immigrants.

Murray Pezim was known as a hustler from his early age as he constantly sought to find ways to make more money.

In 1957, to impress a group of young women, Murray Pezim dived into a pool with no water in it, and broke a number of his bones when he landed on the concrete.

The success of Pyramid Mines made the VSE the premier stock exchange for listing mining companies in Canada, and led Murray Pezim to move west to Vancouver.

Elkind confounded Murray Pezim by winning the fight via knockout, which costed him a great deal of money as Murray Pezim had bet against him.

In 1972 Murray Pezim promoted a boxing match in Vancouver between George Chuvalo and Muhammad Ali, renewing the famous rivalry between Chuvalo and Ali who fought each other in two matches in 1965 and 1966.

Murray Pezim charged too much for the tickets to the Ali-Chuvalo fight, leading him to him selling only half the seats.

In January 1977, Murray Pezim was charged with fraud for his stock market dealings, but was acquitted in 1979.

Murray Pezim frequently visited Las Vegas casinos, and the comedian Joey Bishop gave him the nickname of "the Jewish Howard Hughes".

Three geologists Don McKinnon, John Larche and David Bell contracted Murray Pezim to provide the capital for a gold mine.

On 8 June 1981, Murray Pezim became a director on the board of Corona and a vice president in August 1981.

Murray Pezim founded at least 30 companies to speculate in Hemlo Valley while owning shares in another 30.

Murray Pezim argued that the way that LAC Minerals had outbid him for the land owned by Williams was a breach of trust in the agreement that LAC and Corona were not to compete.

Murray Pezim was deposed from the board of directors of Corona Resources, but in 1986 won a lawsuit against LAC Minerals for breach of trust and was awarded shares worth $154 million.

The complex geology of northwestern British Columbia had led many to assume it would be impossible to profitably mine gold there, but Murray Pezim persisted with having his geologists search for gold in the late 1980s, which led to the discovery of the Eskay Creek gold deposit in 1989.

Murray Pezim was one of the most colorful and flamboyant "characters" selling shares in his companies on the Vancouver Stock Exchange.

Murray Pezim scored big with the 1981 Hemlo Valley and 1989 Eskay Creek gold discoveries.

Murray Pezim came to dominate the VSE as companies owned by him placed first, second, third, fourth and sixth among trading volume on the VSE in 1990.

Murray Pezim made a similarly huge discovery in British Columbia last year.

About the frequent occurrence of fraud on the VSE, Murray Pezim said all stock exchanges have "bad apples" and it was the responsibility of investors to exercise due diligence before buying shares on the VSE.

The chairman of the VSE in 1990, Marty Reynolds stated that Murray Pezim was a relentless promoter of his stocks, but added he was a "promoter, in the good sense of the word".

In 1990, Murray Pezim had at least 50 companies listed on the VSE.

In 1989, Murray Pezim purchased the BC Lions Canadian Football League team.

Shortly after buying the Lions, Murray Pezim caused controversy with his statement that planned to bring in a football team from the rival American National Football League, which would have threatened the business prospects of the Lions.

Murray Pezim described himself publicity as "the world's greatest promoter".

Murray Pezim said all kinds of crazy things and didn't care what people thought.

On 17 December 1990, Murray Pezim was banned by the BC Securities Commission from trading on the VSE for one year for insider trading, disclosure violations and misleading the exchange.

Murray Pezim did not release the news of the encouraging drilling results at Eskay Creek in 1989 in order to buy more shares in the Prime Resources and Calpine companies, which owned the rights to Eskay Creek, and then announced the news of the discovery of gold at Eskay Creek.

Murray Pezim owned so many companies on the VSE that the banning trade on him led to a significant decrease in the volume of trading.

In 1991, Murray Pezim was the subject of a sympathetic biography, The Pez: The Manic Life of the Ultimate Promoter by the journalist Jennifer Wells that first disclosed that Murray Pezim suffered from manic-depression.

Murray Pezim is waving them and growling like a lion in support of the Lions.

Murray Pezim was noted for operating in a chaotic and erratic style with major business decisions involving millions being made seemingly on whims.

Murray Pezim had his winter home at Paradise Valley in Arizona, where he was known for his lavish spending and disorganized style as he agreed to finance business schemes without even having a business plan being presented to him.

Looney noted that Murray Pezim surrounded himself with extremely attractive women dressed in revealing uniforms as his staff, which added to his mystique.

Murray Pezim seemed to have a good sense of humor as he enjoyed the celebrity roasts in Las Vegas where comedians such as Milton Berle and Don Rickles would joke at his expense as Murray Pezim had an obsessive need for attention.

Likewise, Murray Pezim behaved in a very loud and flamboyant manner during his frequent visits to the casinos of Las Vegas.

Murray Pezim was described as being more interested in making deals than in actually making profits as he promoted various unlikely business schemes to which he committed millions.

Murray Pezim came to the party, became the messiah, and very few know.

Murray Pezim treated the Lions very much like his mining companies, as something to be relentlessly promoted while neglecting to invest in the Lions.

In 1992, the star quarterback of the Lions, Doug Flutie, became a free agent after his contract expired and he and Murray Pezim were unable to agree to a new contract.

In March 1992, the Lions lost Flutie to the Calgary Stampeders as the Stampeders owner Larry Ryckman made a more generous offer of one million US dollars annually, which was more what Murray Pezim was willing to pay to retain Flutie.

The journalist Clyde Woolman wrote that Pezim damaged the image of the VSE between the 1960s to the 1990s as she wrote: "The often swashbuckling, sometimes outrageous style of the likes of Nelson Skalbania and Murray Pezim sucked up newspaper print and did nothing to alter the exchange's image".