A British Columbia man has been banned for 10 years and agreed to pay $70,000 after admitting that he used hundreds of thousands of dollars that he raised from investors for personal purposes.
In a settlement with the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC), Francesco Servedio agreed to a 10-year ban from working in the industry in a number of ways, including becoming or acting as a registrant or promoter, and to pay $70,000 to the commission.
The agreement resolved allegations that Servedio violated the securities rules when he made a misrepresentation to investors about the intended use of their funds.
According to the settlement, Servedio raised $3.2 million from investors between 2015 and 2017 to develop a blockchain platform, but used $480,000 of that money for personal purposes without disclosing that fact to investors.
Ultimately, the investors received most of their money back when the platform ceased operations in 2017.
“Servedio was able to return nearly the full amount of the original funds raised to investors because the price of bitcoin had risen,” the BCSC noted.
In settling the case, the BCSC said the Servedio admitted to the misconduct before it brought disciplinary proceedings.