The president of the Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp. has been fined $250,000 and handed a one-year trading ban by the B.C. Securities Commission for violating securities laws, including failing to file a insider-trading reports.

The BCSC said yesterday that Douglas Mason caused a misleading appearance of trading activity and failed to report the distribution of stock he held. Mason agreed to pay the $250,000 of which $50,000 represents the costs of the investigation.

Mason was an officer and director of Clearly Canadian, Consolidated Venturex Holdings Ltd., SWI Steelworks Inc. (formerly ESC Envirotech Systems Corp.), Waterfront Capital Corp., and Columbia Yukon Explorations Inc.

Mason was an insider of all of the companies, which traded on the former Vancouver Stock Exchange.

Between December 1994 and 2000, Mason failed to file insider reports for 67 trades in securities of the companies. The trades were made by an off-shore company at his instruction using shares from his own holdings.

The BCSC said that although there is no evidence of any illicit purpose for the trading, the unreported trades created a misleading appearance of trading activity on the stock exchange, contrary to the public interest.

Under the settlement agreement, Mason can engage in some limited financing activities and carry out securities trading within certain conditions.

Mason cannot serve as an officer or director of any issuer nor can he engage in investor relations activities for 12 months, except for some non-public companies and two public companies in which he is already currently involved: West Vancouver-based Clearly Canadian and Columbia Yukon.