The Ontario Securities Commission will seek leave to appeal the decision tossing out the conviction of former investment banker, Andrew Rankin.

Rankin’s appeal of his conviction was upheld back on November 9. In that ruling, Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer said a lower court judge failed to take into account inconsistencies in the testimony of the prosecution’s key witness.

In today’s motion, the OSC cites several proposed grounds for appeal, including: alleged errors of law made by the Appeal Court Judge in quashing the convictions; that the judge erred in misapprehending and misapplying the standard of review by adopting “a highly interventionist approach in substituting his view of the evidence for that of the trial judge”; that he failed to assess the probative value of the overall patterns of trading; and, that he misapplied the standard of review by applying a highly exacting standard to individual words and phrases within the trial judge’s lengthy reasons instead of applying the broad, functional and purposive standard.

It is expected that the OSC’s motion will be heard Feb. 2, 2007 by a justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario.