The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) and the Alberta RCMP announced on Tuesday that the Joint Serious Offences Team (JSOT) in Alberta, which launched in early December, has made its first arrest following an investigation.
Specifically, Neil Andrew McDonald of Calgary has been criminally charged with seven counts of fraud over $5,000 contrary to section 380(1)(a), one count of fraud under $5,000 contrary to section 380(1)(b) and one count of money laundering contrary to section 462.31(2). It’s alleged that McDonald raised approximately $240,000 fraudulently from seven different investors from October 2012 to July 2015. A bail hearing has been set for Wednesday.
McDonald has a long history with the law. In 2009, he violated Alberta securities law by raising $439,000 fraudulently from investors. As a result, McDonald was banned from trading or advising in securities for a period of 15 years. He repaid $439,000 in restitution and agreed to pay the ASC settlement and investigation costs.
In 2011, McDonald, in defiance of the previous ban, raised $240,000 fraudulently from investors. In October 2012, the ASC charged McDonald with offences under the Securities Act (Alberta) and on Aug. 15, 2014, McDonald was permanently banned from trading in securities and ordered to pay restitution after a provincial court trial. On May 29, 2015, he was sentenced to two years in jail.
The current Criminal Code charges are alleged to have taken place between while McDonald was engaged in court proceedings on the previous charges and waiting to serve his jail term.
Alberta’s JSOT is an enforcement partnership between the ASC, the RCMP federal policing’s financial integrity program and Alberta Crown Prosecution Service.
Alberta’s JSOT is modelled on the Ontario Securities Commission’s (OSC) JSOT unit and the new nine-person team in Alberta has been created to investigate and prosecute both quasi-criminal and criminal cases involving securities law violations.
Read: ASC and RCMP to launch a JSOT for Alberta
A copy of the previous Settlement Agreement and Undertaking with McDonald, as well as orders relating to him, can be found on the ASC’s website at www.albertasecurities.com.
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