The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has ruled that a pair of investment schemes was fraudulent, and that one of the men behind them traded without registration, illegally distributed securities, and perpetrated a fraud on investors.
The OSC issued its decision Thursday in a case it brought in January 2012 alleging that a several companies and individuals were involved in frauds. The case against several respondents has been severed and adjourned, while others have settled with the commission, admitting that that they violated securities laws (a sanctions hearing against them is slated for Aug. 27).
The decision issued Thursday relates to two of the accused in the original case, Sandy Winick and Greg Curry. OSC staff alleged that in three separate, but connected, schemes Winick engaged in unregistered trading, illegally distributed securities, perpetrated securities fraud, and made false statements to investors. It also charged that Curry, as officer and director of one of the companies, permitted breaches of securities law by that corporation.
In the schemes, the OSC said that a salespeople claiming to represent an investment bank from Singapore called Denver Gardner Inc. sold securities over the phone to investors, but that most of the money was siphoned off and used for things other than the companies’ business, such as paying Winick’s credit card bills.