The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is seeking a permanent ban against a man convicted of fraud last year.
The OSC has scheduled a hearing for April 28 to consider imposing a ban against Andre Lewis, who was convicted of one count of fraud by a jury last year; and was subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison by Justice Katherine Corrick of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
In its allegations against Lewis, the OSC charges that the offence that Lewis was convicted on relates to securities; and so, its staff are seeking an inter-jurisdictional enforcement order that would also ban him from securities markets permanently.
According to the regulator’s allegations, Lewis defrauded 33 victims of more than $7.5 million in a “sophisticated mortgage investment scam” that resembled a Ponzi scheme. He operated Lexxco Corp., an Etobicoke, Ont.-based real estate and financial services firm that was licenced as a mortgage administrator with the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) starting in 2009, until it was suspended amid client complaints in 2011.
The OSC says that Lexxco solicited money for investments in private mortgages, but says that only a small portion of the funds was actually invested in mortgages; and, that most of the funds were instead “deposited into bank accounts under Lewis’s control and used for his own benefit, and also used to pay ‘interest’ to other investors.”
Lewis pled not guilty to a charge of fraud over $5,000; but was subsequently convicted following a 39-day jury trial that was held between April and June of last year. He was sentenced in July of 2014.