A British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) panel has extended temporary prohibition on trading for another one year for several individuals including former CAO of City of North Vancouver, Ken Tollstam.
The commission has extended the tradition prohibition to May 27, 2020. The accused individuals, companies have been barred from trading since November 2018.
Tollstam & Company Chartered Accountants, and Albert Kenneth Tollstam are among several individuals and companies that BCSC is investigating for conduct that was abusive to the capital markets.
In November 2018, the commission named former CAO as part of its investigation into transactions between the purported consultants –“the BridgeMark Group” – and B.C. companies operating in the cannabis, cryptocurrency, mining and alternative energy sectors.
The commission alleges that four companies, after selling a total of $17.9 million worth of shares to members of the BridgeMark Group earlier this year, returned $15.3 million to members of the group.
The BridgeMark Group then sold those securities in the market, often at prices far below what its members had paid, netting about $6.2 million.
The four companies subsequently issued news releases saying they had raised a certain amount of money by selling their shares, even though they had paid most of the purchase amount back to BridgeMark, the commission alleges.
The securities sales to BridgeMark were illegal because they improperly used the consultant exemption to avoid filing a prospectus, a formal document that provides details of an investment.
BCSC says it is concerned that the BridgeMark Group’s members are not consultants, that they provided little or no consulting services to the issuing companies, and engaged in the scheme for their own profit – conduct the Executive Director describes as “abusive to the capital markets.”
None of these allegations have been proven in court.
On May 29, Temporary orders were extended for the following individuals and companies, prohibiting them from trading in and purchasing securities of specific issuers: Anthony Kevin Jackson, Lukor Capital Corp., Justin Edgar Liu, Cam Paddock Enterprises Inc., Cameron Robert Paddock, Simran Singh Gill, JCN Capital Corp., John Rosarino Bevilacqua, Essos Corporate Services Inc., Sway Capital Corp., Von Rowell Torres, Detona Capital Corp., Danilen Villanueva, Altitude Marketing Corp., Ryan Peter Venier, Platinum Capital Corp., 658111 B.C. Ltd., Jason Christopher Shull, Tavistock Capital Corp., Robert John Lawrence, Jarman Capital Inc., Scott Jason Jarman, Northwest Marketing and Management Inc., Rufiza Babu Husein Mawji-Esmail, Denise Marie Trainor, Aly Babu Husein Mawji, Escher Invest SA, Hunton Advisory Ltd., Randy White, Kendl Capital Limited, 1153307 B.C. Ltd., Russell Grant Van Skiver, Bertho Holdings Ltd., Robert William Boswell, Haight-Ashbury Media Consultants Ltd., Ashkan Shahrokhi, Keir Paul MacPherson, Tollstam & Company Chartered Accountants, and Albert Kenneth Tollstam. The prohibition pertains to the trading in and purchasing of securities of Cryptobloc Technologies Corp., New Point Exploration Corp., Green 2 Blue Energy Corp. and BLOK Technologies.
In addition, the above individuals and companies are prohibited from purchasing any securities of an issuer listed on the CSE that are distributed using the consultant exemption for distribution of securities without a prospectus.
The orders will expire May 27, 2020, unless further extended through an application of the Executive Director or the panel’s own motion.
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