A British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) panel has ordered almost $44 million in monetary sanctions and a lifetime ban against a former notary that was found to have carried out a $100 million Ponzi scheme.

The panel released its decision Wednesday, in which it ordered that former notary Rashida Samji be fined $33 million, and ordered to pay a further $10.8 million to the BCSC, for committing a $100 million fraud on at least 200 investors. It also ordered that she be permanently banned from the province’s capital markets.

The sanctions decision follows a ruling in July 2014, which found that between approximately 2003 and January 2012, Samji perpetrated the massive fraud when she told investors that she would hold their money in trust, and that it would be used to secure letters of comfort for the financing of a winery. However, this turned out not to be true.

The panel noted that the fraud is serious, and that the respondents acknowledged that fact. “What makes it even more egregious is that the fraud involved a Ponzi scheme in which the entire investment was premised on a lie,” it said. “Samji created and controlled this scheme over a period of more than nine years. This misconduct is at the highest end of the scale of seriousness.”

In ordering a $33 million fine, the panel denied BCSC staff’s call for a $100 million fine, saying that it was not in the public interest. “Even though the amount suggested by the executive director does not exceed the amount raised by the respondents, an administrative penalty of $100 million goes beyond any meaningful bounds of deterrence for the respondents or others,” it said, in deciding on the administrative penalty.

“It reflects the seriousness of the respondents’ misconduct and the other factors relevant to sanctions, making it appropriate for the respondents personally. It also serves as a meaningful and substantial general deterrent to others who would engage in similar misconduct,” the panel said.

It also ordered that the respondents pay another $10.8 million to the commission, reflecting the difference between the money deposited by the investors as part of the fraud, and the money that was paid out to them, according to a forensic accounting analysis.

Additionally, the panel ordered that Samji is permanently prohibited from trading, acting as a registrant or promoter, engaging in investor relations, and from acting in a management or consultative capacity in connection with the securities market.