Dead company revived This story is a little wild. You know those true crime cases you hear about where a person steals the identity of a dead person from a gravestone, and then gets fake ID in the name of the dead person to commit fraud? Well, a Vancouver man named Shane Kenneth Schmidt is […]
Cruel and unusual punishment Everything I know about the Eighth Amendment and death penalty jurisprudence, I learned from former US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, from whom I had the privilege of studying law during a course on international human rights and constitutional law. US Supreme Court Justice Kennedy, as he was then, was not […]
The proceeds of crime from a massive US$550 million Ponzi scheme perpetrated by two convicted fraudsters in the US – Kevin Merrill and Jay Ledford – are being auctioned at an online auction house starting next week, in part because of Covid-19. Diamonds, sports memorabilia, art, gold coins, comic book from securities fraud being sold […]
This case wins first prize as the most unusual financial crime case of 2019. It’s about Dawn J. Bennett, a former stock broker from Maryland, who first worked with Western International Securities. In addition to selling securities, Bennett was a financial expert on a radio show where she dispensed investment advice and believed that she […]
The British Columbia Securities Commission (“BCSC“) and Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“) have jointly issued temporary cease trade orders in respect of a Vancouver company called Micron Waste Technologies Inc. (“Micron“). The BCSC cease trade order is here; the SEC cease trade order is here. It has been a number of years since a joint […]
The founder of a digital currency exchange lied so much to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“) during its investigation and to a California Court, and made himself so not credible, that a Court has recommended one of the harshest remedies available – to deprive the defendant of the constitutional right to be heard – […]
A Canadian, possibly Iranian Canadian, pled guilty in New York today to conspiracy and securities fraud in connection with a scheme where fake securities of tech companies, such as Twitter and Uber, were sold to investors who suffered losses of US$18 million. Fred Elm, whose real name is Frederic Elmaleh from Toronto, led an investment […]
Three Canadians who ran a binary financial business that allegedly took in $233 million from investors, are alleged to have engaged in the illegal distribution of securities that impacted investors from several countries in the world. The three are Josh Cartu, Jonathan Cartu and David Cartu. The binary business was allegedly operated in Israel. OSC […]
Updated July 8, 2020 Cease trade order against foreign entity The British Columbia Securities Commission (the “BCSC“) has issued an intriguing order that all persons must cease trading (the “CTO“) the shares of a non-British Columbia company called Sandy Steele Unlimited Inc. (“Sandy Steele“). Sandy Steele is a pubco incorporated in Minnesota that appears to […]
This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“) filed applications for default judgement against several companies, including several shells in tax havens with Canadian nominee control persons, involved in an alleged US$35 million international pump and dump scheme. Six individuals, including three Canadians, at least one from Vancouver, were charged in an SEC complaint in […]