The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has handed down sanctions for an advance fee scheme that was allegedly orchestrated by accused fraudster, Sandy Winick.
Earlier this year, the OSC issued an order finding that Kolt Curry, and two companies known as American Heritage Stock Transfer Inc. traded without registration, illegally distributed securities, and made prohibited representations as part of an advance fee scheme, which solicited investors but never collected any money. Another individual, Laura Mateyak, was found to have acquiesced to the breaches in her capacity as an officer and director of AHST, but she did not participate in the scheme. (See Investment Executive, Two investment schemes fraudulent: OSC, August 8, 2013.)
Today, the OSC ordered that Curry and the companies be permanently banned from trading and registration, and that they jointly pay an administrative penalty of $100,000 for breaches of the Securities Act. They were also ordered to pay $60,000 in costs. Mateyak was banned for five years and ordered to pay a penalty of $2,500, but no costs.
Back in August, the commission found that Winick provided Curry with the letters used to solicit investors, and the addresses of the recipients. In doing so, it ruled that Winick also traded without registration and engaged in an illegal distribution of securities.
He has since been arrested in Thailand, and faces allegations in the U.S. that he “masterminded securities fraud and advance fee schemes that victimized investors in approximately 35 nations and generated more than $140 million”, according to U.S. authorities. Those allegations have not been proven.