An admitted securities fraudster has been sentenced to two years in jail for perpetrating a $5 million investment fraud.
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) announced that Terrence Bedford was sentenced to two years in federal penitentiary today after pleading guilty to one count of fraud.
It says that Bedford admitted that he orchestrated a fraudulent US$4,985,867 investment fund scheme between 2000 and 2011, which involved misleading approximately 24 Canadian and American investors into believing that a fund he ran called Greyhawk Equity Partners Limited Partnership (Millenium) was a highly profitable investment fund.
The OSC says that he created false documents for investors, including documents purportedly from a respected audit firm that misrepresented the actual investments, and concealed the true value of the fund and its actual investment losses. It says that he never admitted to investors that he was losing, or had lost, their investments.
“This case demonstrates that the OSC continues to aggressively pursue people who commit securities fraud in Ontario’s capital market,” said Tom Atkinson, director of enforcement at the OSC. “It is important that the appropriate sentences are imposed for serious financial crime to deter like-minded individuals.”