The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) on Thursday announced that it has filed charges in connection with an illegal insider trading scheme involving a former executive assistant to a senior officer of BCE Inc.

The AMF alleges that Renée Morier was at the centre of a scheme that exploited confidential information about transactions involving BCE. The Quebec regulator also alleges that Morier and a group that included some of her family and friends engaged in trading that produced more than $1 million in illicit profits between 2012 and 2015. The allegations have not been proven.

Back in August, the AMF froze almost $2 million in the accounts of the individuals accused in this case. At the time, the AMF indicated that the trading surrounded BCE’s acquisitions of Glentel Inc., Bell Aliant and Astral Media Inc.

The regulator on Thursday announced it has filed 42 charges in the case and is seeking $2.6 million in fines, the AMF says in a statement.

Morier has been charged with one count of using privileged information and eight counts of tipping. Her spouse, Sylvain Milette, is facing two counts of illegal insider trading, one count of using privileged information, one count of conspiracy to trade in securities based on privileged information, and four counts of tipping. A friend of the couple, Francis Beauchamp, also faces nine charges. In addition, Beauchamp’s parents and Morier’s parents are each facing four charges.

Morier, Milettte and Beauchang also face the possibility of prison terms, the AMF statement says.

“By using privileged information that is not available to the public, offenders create an imbalance that has an impact on investor confidence and market efficiency. This is unacceptable and the reason why the AMF has made deterring illegal insider trading a top priority,” says Louis Morisset, president and CEO of the AMF and chair of the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), in a statement.

“Our investigation teams continue to develop and refine tools to enable them to more effectively identify suspicious market transactions. These efforts will, we hope, deter others who try to capitalize on privileged information in order to realize illegal profits,” he adds.