The Ontario District Council of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada has imposed a permanent ban John Illidge, the former chairman and director of St. James Securities Inc., for improper trading.

In addition to the ban, the IDA fined Illidge $300,000 and ordered him to pay costs of costs of $125,000.

As part of a settlement reached with the IDA on Tuesday, June 17, Illidge admitted that between 1997 and 1999 he:


  • Opened an account in the name of a fictitious corporate client for the purpose of concealing his own trading activities;
  • Operated a client account in the name of a trust that had been terminated and used the account to carry out his personal trading;
  • Directed client correspondence to various addresses, including his personal address;
  • Engaged in unauthorized trading in a client’s account;
  • Failed to disclose his interest in a number of client accounts;
  • Carried out transactions without benefit to the trading parties, and which had the result of overstating SJS’s capital position;
  • Fixed prices for four securities that were not fair market prices for those securities;
  • Effected transactions between SJS inventory accounts and corporations controlled by him that were not within the bounds of good business practice and which unduly prejudiced SJS’s capital position;
  • Failed to exercise due diligence to ensure that all necessary account documents were obtained and complete;
  • Traded in registered debentures between client and non-client accounts while the debentures were not in a tradable form;
  • Conducted trading in client accounts without funds and allowed accounts to trade for a prolonged period of time without adequate margin;
  • Traded in a corporate client’s account for several months prior to the client’s incorporation; and
  • Failed to question documents purportedly signed by clients that appeared, on their face, to be forgeries.

Illidge also carried out discretionary trades in a client’s account, from 1997 to 1999.

In addition to his multiple roles at SJS, Mr. Illidge was a major shareholder of St. James Holdings Inc. (“SJH”), the parent company of SJS. In November 1999, SJS became inactive after transferring all of its client accounts to Northern Securities Inc. Following the demise of SJS in November 1999, Mr. Illidge became a Director of Rampart Mercantile Inc., the parent company of the now bankrupt firm Rampart Securities Inc. Mr. Illidge was also a former Chief Executive Officer of Hucamp Mines Inc., a CDNX listed company. He was also the majority shareholder of St. James Capital Corporation (“SJC”), which company declared bankruptcy in December 2001.

Illidge has been previously disciplined by the IDA. He has not been registered in any capacity with the association since January 2000.