Two B.C. traders have been granted leave to appeal a couple of B.C. Securities Commission decisions by the B.C. court of appeal.

In the first decision, handed down on Feb. 14, 2003, the BCSC found that Carl Anderson and Douglas Montaldi had breached various provisions of the province’s Securities Act, and that they had acted contrary to the public interest.

The second decision, made March 7, imposed penalties on the Anderson and Montaldi, including 12 year prohibitions from acting as a director or officer of an issuer, and an administrative penalty of $200,000.

The BCSC found that Anderson and Montaldi traded and distributed securities without being registered and without filing a prospectus, made misrepresentations, and perpetrated a fraud.

Anderson and Montaldi did not appeal the first finding, but their counsel for argued the commission erred in its findings of fraud. The also argued that the penalty was unduly punitive, given the evidence, and that the penalty reflected elements of general deterrence, contrary to an earlier BCSC decision.

In its decision, The B.C. court of appeal granted leave to appeal the decisions.