The president of a B.C. investment firm convicted of defrauding 45 people out of more than $2.4 million has been permanently banned from trading in the province’s capital markets, the British Columbia Securities Commission said.
Richard Smith and Synlan Securities Corp. were also ordered to pay $750,000 in administrative penalties for violating the Securities Act.
The violations include failing to be registered as required under the act and distributing securities without a prospectus.
A panel of the commission said in a release that “Smith and his company showed a pattern of deceit and disregard for securities regulatory requirements.
“Their conduct is serious, they have harmed investors and have damaged the integrity of British Columbia’s capital markets,” the panel said in its decision.
In December 1997, Smith pleaded guilty to 22 counts of theft over $5,000 and 10 counts of fraud, and was sentenced by Ontario provincial court to two years less a day in prison for a scheme involving sales of limited partnership units in a proposed residential development in downtown Toronto.
He and a company withdrew investors’ money before several of the deal’s conditions had been met and continued to sell units to other investors. Some 31 investors lost nearly $1.8 million in that case.
Smith and Synlan were permanently banned from Ontario’s capital markets.
Around the same time, Smith and Synlan also formed three partnerships to raise money for residential developments in Arizona and Florida and sold partnership units to 14 B.C. residents. The homes were never built and the partnerships did not return the funds they collected from investors, who lost about $600,000.
