British Columbia securities regulators have reached a settlement with a B.C. woman who admitted to defrauding investors by getting them to invest US$765,000 in a non-existent company.

Dianne Oslund is banned from trading securities, cannot be a director or officer of any issuer, and cannot engage in any investor relations activities for 15 years.

She admitted to making misrepresentations, defrauding investors, unregistered trading and illegally selling securities without a prospectus.

In March 2000, Oslund and Michael Savage purportedly sold US$765,000 of shares in Savage Tele.com Corp. to eight investors from Alberta and the U.S. Oslund was represented as the company’s chief operating officer with Savage as the company’s founder and president.

Investors were told that Savage was incorporated in B.C. and the state of Delaware. In fact, the company had never been incorporated and did not exist.

In the settlement with the B.C. Securities Commission, Oslund admitted that she helped draft a business plan containing false statements that she knew would be given to investors before they bought shares in the company. She helped disseminate the business plan to investors and signed share subscription agreements purportedly on behalf of the company. When investors demanded their money back, Oslund was part of an arrangement in which she received some of the money and did not return any to the investors.

BCSC staff allegations against Savage remain outstanding.