The Ontario Securities Commission has frozen an account containing money that the regulator alleges was made from illegal insider trading that benefited ATI Technologies chairman K.Y. Ho and several others linked to the graphics chip maker.

The provincial stocks regulator said Monday it had ordered two financial institutions to hold the contents of an account held in the name of Sovereign Ltd., a company that held money made through insider trading.

The freeze will continue until the Ontario Superior Court of Justice holds a hearing on the issue February 10.

Meanwhile, the commission, which oversees Ontario’s securities industry and Canada’s largest stock market, has scheduled hearings from February 19 to March 10 to hear the allegations against Ho and the six other people.

ATI is alleged to have failed to disclose material information on a timely basis and to have made a misleading statement to staff.

Those alleged to have committed illegal insider trading in a series of offshore transactions more than three years ago are: Ho and his wife, Betty Ho; Jo-Anne Chang her husband, David Stone; and Mary de la Torre and her husband, Alan Rae.

OSC staff alleged in January 2003 that activities by those six people resulted in more than $7.9 million in profits or avoided losses and triggered significant tax benefits.

The commission alleged that Chang and Stone carried out the illegal insider trading through QDOS Capital Corp., a company incorporated in the Turks and Caicos islands. The money then was moved through various offshore entities and transferred to the Sovereign account.

“Staff allege that the funds in the Sovereign Ltd. account were obtained as a result of contraventions of Ontario securities law,” the commission said.

ATI lawyer Sally Daub is also alleged to have made a misleading statement to staff at the OSC’s enforcement branch.