Former Bay Street executive Mark Valentine has been fined $1 million, ordered to disgorge more than $17 million and permanently banned from trading after Ontario’s Capital Markets Tribunal found that he repeatedly breached a previous regulatory ban for almost 20 years.
In 2004, Valentine, the former head of brokerage firm Thomson Kernaghan & Co. Ltd., was permanently banned from serving as a director or officer of any issuer and prohibited from trading for 15 years in a settlement with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).
Earlier this year, the tribunal found that he breached both of those prohibitions.
Among other things, the tribunal found that Valentine never resigned the director and officer roles he held at the time the bans took effect, and that he took on prohibited jobs for 36 other companies over the years.
Now, the tribunal has handed down its sanctions in the case. It ordered that Valentine be fined $1 million, ordered to disgorge the money he made breaching the 2004 orders — $3.2 million and US$10.7 million — and ordered him to pay more than $300,000 in costs. It also banned him from trading, once again.
According to the tribunal’s decision, Valentine agreed to the bans and the disgorgement, but argued that the $2-million penalty and the costs order sought by the OSC were excessive. He suggested that the penalty should be $500,000 and disputed its costs request.
The tribunal said Valentine acknowledged that “his misconduct was serious, and warrants significant sanctions” including market bans and a large disgorgement order — but that he argued that, apart from breaching the orders, his misconduct wasn’t otherwise unlawful, and there is no evidence that any investor lost any money as a result.
“Valentine’s misconduct was very serious. He repeatedly breached the 2004 order immediately upon its issuance, over an extended period and in multiple transactions,” the tribunal said, concluding that the misconduct, “calls for serious sanctions.”
Ultimately, the tribunal imposed penalties that were closer to the amounts suggested by Valentine, than what was sought by the OSC.