Michael Cowpland’s holding company, M.C.J.C. Holdings Ltd., pled guilty today in Ontario Court of Justice to one count of insider trading. Cowpland was the chief executive officer of Corel Corporation, a software manufacturer located in Ottawa.

Between Aug. 11, 1997 and Aug. 14, 1997, M.C.J.C. sold 2,431,200 Corel shares for total proceeds of approximately $20.4 million. At the time M.C.J.C. had knowledge of a material fact with respect to Corel which had not been generally disclosed. The material fact was that Corel would fall short of its forecasted sales for the its 1997 third quarter by a significant margin.

Corel had prepared a forecast for analysis that sales for Q3 were expected to be $94 million U.S. On September 10th, 1997 Corel announced losses for Q3 of $32 million U.S. Following the announcement of the Q3 losses, the price of Corel shares on the TSE fell considerably.

The court imposed a financial penalty totalling $1 million on the company. Charges of permitting the company to insider trade and making a false statement to OSC staff were withdrawn against Cowpland personally.

A panel of the Ontario Securities Commission will be convened to consider a settlement agreement regarding the proceedings against M.C.J.C. and Cowpland. The hearing will be held at the OSC’s offices located at 20 Queen Street West, Toronto, commencing at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12th, 2002.