The New Brunswick Securities Commission has issued a permanent cease-trade order against Meisner Inc. S.A, Meisner Corporation, Meisner Incorporated, Jorge Vizcarra and George Dizcarra.

The order directs these persons and entities, as well as their officers, directors, employees and/or agents, to cease trading in all securities, including the solicitation of trades. The respondents were not registered with the NBSC, yet were aggressively soliciting New Brunswickers with the sale of securities which included commodity and foreign exchange options.

The order was issued by the NBSC following a hearing on August 2. In addition, the respondents were banned from using any exemptions provided under the Securities Act and were ordered to pay costs of $4,500.

“New Brunswick investors need to be aware that there is ‘boiler-room’ activity targeting them,” said Rick Hancox, executive director of the NBSC, in a release. “Sales representatives of boiler rooms are persistent and use high pressure tactics over the telephone and Internet. They entice potential investors with the promise of very large rates of return, which at the end of the day simply don’t materialize,” Hancox said.

Meisner Inc. S.A. appears to be carrying on business from Costa Rica and holds itself out as an independent broker in currency and commodity options. They appear to be similar to Saxon Financial Services Ltd., an entity against which the Commission issued a permanent cease-trade order on July 27. Meisner’s clients use the same account opening documentation as Saxon and are asked to transfer funds to the same bank account used by Saxon, in Frankfurt, Germany (in the name of “MerchantMarx”).

Meisner’s Web site was registered by a Jorge Vizcarra in May of this year. George Dizcarra was previously affiliated with Arial Trading LLC, a business very similar to that of Meisner. Once cease-traded by securities regulators in March of this year, that company and the website of Arial Trading LLC went offline shortly thereafter. Jorge Vizcarra was affiliated with another business (Liberty Financial Trading Corp.) which was permanently banned from trading by a Florida court. Liberty Financial’s activities resulted in losses to customers of at least $10 million. NBSC staff believe that George Dizcarra and Jorge Vizcarra may be one and the same person.

Representatives from Meisner have been persistently and aggressively calling residents in at least New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. The solicitations have a direct telemarketing approach, and suggest that large returns will be made. Potential clients are referred to a website known as tradingmx.com. The NBSC n is working in close cooperation with other jurisdictions on this and other similar cases.