An Ontario court has denied an appeal of a disciplinary decision of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Divisional Court rejected an appeal from four men brought concerning an OSC decision from 2010, which found that the men had violated securities laws by trading without registration and trading in securities without filing the necessary disclosure documents.

According to the decision, Taylor v. Ontario Securities Commission, 2013 ONSC 6495, Lewis Taylor Sr., Lewis Taylor Jr., Colin Taylor and Jared Taylor, filed separate appeals and factums dealing with discrete issues. However, they each adopted the arguments of the others, and the appeals were heard together.

Among the various grounds for appeal, the decision states that the appellants argued that the transactions in question were actually loans, not a scheme to sell securities, and that the commission ignored evidence that this was the case. However, the court found that “the commission had ample evidence before it to reasonably conclude that the substance of the transactions in question was a sale transaction rather than a loan transaction.”

The men also argued that the commission erred when it gave ‘considerable weight’ to hearsay evidence obtained from investors through questionnaires and telephone interviews. The court found, however, that the OSC only used hearsay evidence when it was supported and corroborated by other evidence. “In doing so, it made no error,” the decision states.

Additionally, the court rules that the commission “had ample evidence before it to conclude that the appellants did have control of the shares and arranged for them to be distributed to the public in violation of the Act.”

The court also rejected various other arguments for the appeal, including allegations of bias, and lack of due process, ultimately dismissing it. And, it ordered costs of $25,000 in the case, citing “the number of issues that the appellants raised on this appeal and the length of time the appeal took to argue.”