A B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) panel has found that a B.C. man committed fraud as part of a Craigslist investment scheme.
The BCSC panel ruled that Won Sang Chen Cho (aka Craig Cho) committed fraud through his various businesses, including online media firms, Chosen Media and Groops Media. It says he also made false statements and illegally distributed securities. The panel did not hand down any sanctions, asking both sides to make submissions on sanctions next month.
The decision indicates that Cho admitted to most of the conduct alleged in the commission’s initial charges against him. It says that he admits contravening securities laws and distributing securities without a prospectus, but denied the allegations of misrepresentation and fraud. Ultimately, the panel found that he committed those violations, too.
Specifically, it reports that, between January 2011 and February 2012, Cho, doing business as Chosen Media, promoted securities on Vancouver’s Craigslist website; that he raised $101,846 from five investors, and that he delivered purported investment returns of $62,000 to those investors. It says that Cho admitted to promising extremely high, risk-free returns that would be generated by depositing their funds into accounts at various sports betting websites, that would pay “generous signup and reload bonuses”.
The panel also found that in December 2012, during the course of the commission’s investigation into the Chosen Media case, Cho sent an e-mail promoting an investment with Groops Media, despite the fact that he’d already been warned by BCSC staff that he must comply with prospectus requirements when distributing securities.
“As a result of [Cho’s] dishonest conduct, investors’ pecuniary interests were put at risk and three of the five investors suffered actual loss,” the panel said, noting that those investors are still owed $57,000.