The B.C. Securities Commission has fined a former mutual fund salesman $100,000 and banned him for life for fraud.
A BCSC panel fined and banned Ajit Singh Basi, a 24-year-old B.C. resident, after finding that he defrauded an Alberta woman that he met on the Internet out of $11,055.
The panel ordered that Basi be permanently prohibited from trading and acting as a director or officer of any issuer. He is also permanently banned from becoming a registrant, investment fund manager, or promoter, among other things. And, he was ordered to repay the money he took, along with a $100,000 fine.
In its decision, the panel found that Basi took the woman’s money, after promising he would use to buy shares for her at a discount, and used it for personal purposes. It also found that there were no mitigating factors in the case. Basi did not appear at the BCSC hearing, entered no evidence and made no submissions.
“The orders we are making are intended to deter Basi from future misconduct and to demonstrate the consequences of inappropriate conduct to other market participants. We have followed the approach in recent cases of ordering an administrative penalty that is a multiple of the amount raised by the fraud,” the panel said in its decision.