B.C. Securities Commission expands criminal investigation team with regulatory fee increase

VANCOUVER — The B.C. Securities Commission will increase revenues by an estimated $7.6 million to boost enforcement and support and regulate new financial technologies such as crypto currency.

The revenue increase, estimated at 16 per cent of the BCSC’s annual budget, will come from fee increases levied on financial advisers and regulatory filings for activities used to raise money in B.C.’s public and private capital markets.

The fee increases — the first since 1994 — will go into effect on Dec. 30.

BCSC executive director Peter Brady said he did not have an exact figure, but stressed a “significant portion” of the increased revenues will be earmarked to fight white-collar crime.

“Obviously, white-collar crime is a huge priority for our government and it’s a huge priority for the BCSC. So we are working collaboratively with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Finance staff to tackle the problem of white-collar crime in British Columbia,” Brady said.

The increased revenues will help expand the BCSC’s criminal investigation team, normally staffed by four investigators during the past decade. Two investigators have been added this year, as well as an administrative support person to handle document work.

The BCSC plans to hire “several more” investigators over the coming months, said Brady.

“I don’t have an exact number today, and the reason for that is we are in the middle of our strategic and budgeting process for next fiscal year,” he said.

The increased revenues will also help with fine collection — and “is intended to allow us to continue to spend whatever we need to track down any assets we identify,” said Brady.

The fee increases will also help enhance investor education, modernize rules for raising capital and harden the security commission’s cyber-security defences, according to a BCSC announcement this week.

Last year, B.C. Finance Minister Carole James ordered the securities commission to improve enforcement and fine collections.

James called for the enforcement improvements following a Vancouver Sun investigation published in November 2017 that found more than half a billion dollars in penalties had gone uncollected by the BCSC in the past decade and that criminal prosecutions by police were a rarity.

The BCSC criminal investigation team has been successful in getting prosecutions in the past decade.

But the newspaper reported that the cases the BCSC investigation team takes on are low-hanging fruit involving fewer victims and smaller amounts of money than those the commission has pursued at tribunals that have resulted in large unpaid monetary penalties.

Brady said there hadn’t been a fee increase in 25 years.