A recent OSC move is sending a strong message that wrongdoings committed in other provinces will likely block those players from doing business in Ontario.
A recent OSC move is sending a strong message that wrongdoings committed in other provinces is increasingly likely to block those players from doing business in Ontario.
A Calgary man who agreed to a six-year ban with the Alberta Securities Commission last December is now facing the possibility of something similar in Ontario.
Gordon Mak breached Alberta securities laws between 2006 and 2010 raising funds for two Alberta companies – Goldenrod Resources Inc. and Clean Power Technologies Inc. – by advising investors without registration and engaging in an illegal distribution of securities. The ASC ascertained that Mak breached four sections of the Alberta Securities Act conduct contrary to the public interest.
Selling net-profit agreements (NPA’s) for specific gas assets or gas processing facility to investors in return for 1 per cent of the net profits from those assets, the two companies raised a total of $7.7 million from these agreements.
Mak’s take from investors for his portion of the sale proceeds totaled in excess of $30,000.
As part of his agreement Mak agreed to pay $80,000 to the Commission to settle the allegations plus $15,000 for costs related to the ASC’s investigation. In addition, the ASC slapped Mak with a six-year ban that prohibits him from trading in securities and derivatives of any kind except those in one personal brokerage account supervised by someone registered by the ASC. Under no circumstances should he be advising in securities or derivatives.
Now, the Ontario Securities Commission seeks an inter-jurisdictional enforcement order reciprocating the Settlement Agreement Mak reached with the ASC pursuant to paragraph 5 of subsection 127(10) of the Ontario Securities Corporation.
Essentially, a hearing will be held April 28 to determine if the OSC staff can bring similar sanctions against Mak here in Ontario, again because it’s in the public’s best interests.
The question for advisors in Alberta and Ontario isn’t whether the settlement agreement reached with Mak is appropriate but whether both provinces aren’t better served with one regulatory body doling out justice across the country instead of on a piecemeal basis as is happening here.
