Securities body sues Thow for $250,000

The B.C. Securities Commission is suing convicted fraudster Ian Thow for $250,000 in unpaid fines it says it is owed.

Thow was ordered by the commission to pay a $6-million administrative penalty for contravening the B.C. Securities Act. That figure was reduced to $250,000 by the B.C. Court of Appeal.

“Despite demand, the defendant has not remitted any payment,” the commission states in a B.C. Supreme Court filing.

The notice of claim was filed Thursday because the 10-year deadline for enforcing the judgment was approaching, a commission official said Friday.

Under B.C. Supreme Court rules, the defendant must be served within the 12 months after a civil claim is filed. The defendant then has 21 days to respond.

The RCMP Integrated Market Enforcement Team ran a five-year investigation into Thow, a former Berkshire Investment Group vicepresident, based on allegations he cheated clients and friends out of more than $32 million.

Thow was jailed in 2010 for defrauding 20 clients of $8 million. He was released from prison in fall 2012 after serving less than one-third of a nine-year prison sentence.

His parole was to run to March 3 of this year.

At his trial, the Crown characterized Thow’s actions as a classic Ponzi scheme — a form of fraud in which new investors provide returns for existing ones.

Thow was permanently barred from trading securities and working as an investment fund manager or promoter in 2007.

In 2015, he was living in a rental home in the Fraser Valley, making payments of $100 per month toward a court order that he pay back $3.8 million.

He used to live on the Saanich Peninsula in a luxury waterfront home, which was sold by the bankruptcy trustee.