The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) has cease traded a Bahamian brokerage firm that was allegedly trading without registration, and serving several B.C.-based clients that have had their own run ins with the regulator.
A BCSC panel has issued a cease trade order against Gibraltar Global Securities Inc, a company registered in the Bahamas that provides offshore securities brokerage, investment management and advisory services, for trading and advising in securities in B.C. without being registered; and for refusing to provide the regulator’s staff with information about B.C. residents with accounts at the company.
The panel said that the firm’s continued refusal to provide BCSC staff with information about its B.C.-based clients made the company “unsuitable to engage in securities related activities” in the province.
The BCSC also reports that several of the firm’s B.C. clients were subjects of past and ongoing investigations by the commission. It says that one has been convicted of wire fraud and securities fraud in the U.S., and another is the subject of a BCSC investigation for market manipulation that involved the deposit of securities in an account at Gibraltar by a B.C. reporting issuer.
Last August, the BCSC issued a freeze order against Gibraltar’s accounts at Global Securities Corp., a Vancouver brokerage firm, freezing approximately $2.2 million. In its decision, the panel also refused Gibraltar’s application to revoke the freeze order.