The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has sentenced an advisor to six months in jail, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), announced Friday.
Daniel Tiffin was found guilty of trading without registration, trading without a prospectus, and trading while prohibited after his company, Tiffin Financial Corp., issued promissory notes to clients. In addition to the jail sentence, the court ordered him to pay $624,500 in restitution to seven clients who purchased the notes. Tiffin is also restricted from trading in securities for two years under a probation order.
In 2016, Tiffin and his company, Tiffin Financial Corp. (TFC), were acquitted of allegations against them after the court ruled that the promissory notes did not qualify as securities.
Those acquittals were overturned earlier this year by Justice Robert Charney of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket, Ont.. ruled that the lower court erred, and the notes should be considered securities. The court then substituted convictions in the case.
In his sentencing decision, Justice Charney, wrote, “persons who violate the Securities Act understand that serious penalties will be imposed on individuals who abuse their position of trust and violate the law.”
The OSC issued a five-year trading ban against Tiffin in 2014, along with an administrative penalty and a disgorgement order, due to an earlier incident of unregistered trading and trading without a prospectus.