What happens here stay here - unless you're talking about Las Vegas.

No one hates the term "spin doctor" more than the PR professionals, but here is a perfect example of the power that misusing public tactics can have.

Urban Casavant, a front-man for the Las Vegas-based CMKM Diamonds, and 13 of his colleagues were hit with a civil injunction alleging they illegally issued and sold up to 662 billion shares of unrestricted stock and collected at least $64.2 million from investors who bought their story... about the vast diamond fortune lying beneath the surface in far reaches of Saskatchewan, Canada.

According to the report, more than 40,000 individual investors are unknowingly involved.

Like all good cons, there was a grain of truth to the promotional puffery. The behemoth DeBeers corporation has explored the Forte a la Corne region of Saskatchewan, which is believed to contain one of the larger diamond fields on the planet.

Not that CMKM found any, or used the millions his promotion generated to develop his claims. But he wisely left such details out of his obnoxiously optimistic media statements.

Casavant's company is a testament to the power of public relations with press releases, hyperbolic Internet chat rooms, and race event promotions across the country.

His glittering press releases not only promoted his worthless stock, but they also helped calm the fears of skeptical investors as they downplayed the SEC's criticism. And that often meant investors eventually poured good money after bad as they chased their dream of riches glittering from the Great White North like some penny stock aurora borealis.

Casavant has supposedly returned to Canada... perhaps to be closer to his diamonds.