A very long time ago, July 2007 to be exact, a Shaughnessy mansion located at 1178 Laurier Avenue in Vancouver, Canada, was shot up. No one was hurt. People said that the shooter was a member of the Hell’s Angels, angry over losses he incurred from a pump and dump stock scheme that dumped too […]
Morrie Tobin, the Canadian financier who tipped authorities off about the college admissions scandal, was sentenced today to a year and a day in prison after pleading guilty to securities fraud for pumping and dumping stocks. Despite his crucial tip and his cooperation in the investigation that led to the college admissions prosecutions, the judge […]
The US Attorney in Florida today announced that a Canadian, Brooks Thomas Nesbitt, was sentenced to 10 years in jail after pleading guilty to wire fraud in connection with a money laundering securities fraud scheme. Nesbitt, originally from Thornhill, Ontario, ran several boiler room operations with another Canadian, Mary Kathryn Marr, which took in over […]
Jack It was November 7, 1885. John Worth Mitchell — Jack to his friends — was 8-years-old and living in Port Elgin, Ontario, when he heard from his parents that the unsinkable S.S. Algoma had shipwrecked and sank crossing Lake Superior. At least 48 passengers and crew had been washed away at sea and were […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“) today announced that it reached a settlement with a British Columbia company and some former key executives, in respect of charges of improper revenue recognition and the issuance of misleading public securities law disclosures in its securities filings as well as earnings presentations. The issuer, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., […]
(1) Claim Central The Alberta Securities Commission (“ASC“) issued two notices today. The first was a warning about a company called “Claim Central” which purports to be an asset recovery agency claiming to be capable of recovering funds from the numerous binary financial scams that have targeted Canadians in the past. In order to activate […]
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 […]