The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has rejected an application from the respondents in an enforcement case seeking summonses for 700 witnesses.
According to reasons released Thursday, the OSC denied a bid from Fawad Ul Haq Khan and Khan Trading Associates Inc., carrying on business as Money Plus (KTA), who brought a motion seeking support for a request that approximately 700 witnesses be summonsed by the OSC to testify at a hearing into allegations that they engaged in unregistered trading and advising in commodity futures, made misrepresentations to OSC staff, and misled the commission, among other things.
Those allegations have not been proven, and the respondents in the case brought a motion arguing that they have a legal right to examine hundreds of witnesses as part of their defence, including 679 account holders referenced in the OSC’s allegations against them; five OSC staff members; several chief executive officers and staff at brokerage houses; and, the OSC staff’s witnesses.
OSC staff opposed the motion on the basis that the request is “unwarranted, unreasonable and impractical” and that they have not satisfied the legal test for allowing witnesses to give evidence.
The commission ruled that the evidence of all 679 account holders would be unduly repetitious, and found that the respondents in the case can call a representative sample of each group of account holders, totalling 18 witnesses. As for the others, it deferred to the judgement of the panel that hears the case. The hearing has not yet been scheduled. The motion was heard because it was necessary to resolve the witness issue before scheduling the hearing.