Vancouver Sun

Securities commission chips away at collection­s

Fines paid in November and December put small dent in $30M-plus in penalties due

- GORDON HOEKSTRA ghoekstra@postmedia.com

The B.C. Securities Commission has reached a settlement agreement with Lakhwindar Singh Janda, also known as Lucky Janda, who admitted to failing to file insider reports.

Janda agreed to pay a $15,000 fine, which he has paid, B.C. Securities Commission spokesman Malka Aujla confirmed Thursday.

Janda’s payment is among several B.C. Securities Commission fines that have been paid in November and December that were not captured in a Postmedia investigat­ion, reported last month, that found the commission collected less than two per cent of $510 million in fines and orders to pay back the proceeds of fraudulent activities from fiscal 2007-08 to 2016-17.

The recently paid fines include $140,000 from Kenneth Brooks for insider trading and $25,000 from Justin Trent Smith for trading without being registered to do so.

Both agreed to the fines after also reaching settlement agreements with the securities commission.

The securities commission also announced in December it had paid three investors $120,000 that they lost as a result of misconduct by Ayaz Dhanani. A securities commission panel found in 2016 that Dhanani fraudulent­ly raised $188,800 from three investors.

However, the fines that have been paid are still dwarfed by other unpaid fines and orders to pay back the proceeds of fraudulent activities that have not been paid.

The securities commission issued $34.4 million in penalties in 2017, but just one per cent has been collected, according to a calculatio­n by Postmedia based on the securities commission’s sanctions payment status reports and other informatio­n provided by the commission.

The unpaid penalties include $6-million fines each handed to sisters Siu Mui “Debbie” Wong and Siu Kon “Bonnie” Soo for multiple acts of fraud.

The pair were also ordered to pay back $9.86 million in proceeds from securities sold for a land-developmen­t project in Alberta started in 2007.

Richard Lian, also known as Richard Terry Ruuska, and Enna Keller have also not paid their fines issued in 2017. They were each fined $2.42 million and Lian was ordered to pay back $2.4 million.

David Tuan Seng Lim and Michael Mugford were fined $800,000 and $375,000 respective­ly by the securities commission for market manipulati­on, but neither has paid their penalty.

Earlier in the year, the commission collected partial payment, just under $76,000, from Winston King-Loong Kuit after he admitted to unregister­ed trading, unregister­ed advising, and distributi­ng securities without a prospectus.

In total, Kuit was ordered to pay penalties of $167,500.

The securities commission has worked out a payment plan with Kuit for the remaining penalty, but wouldn’t disclose the details.

In the latest settlement agreement with Janda this month, the B.C. man agreed that he was a de facto director of a B.C.-based company called Easy Technologi­es, traded on several alternativ­e stock exchanges, including the Canadian Securities Exchange and the U.S. Over the Counter Market.

Janda made 24 insider trades using five different trading accounts at three different brokerage houses and also entered into a share purchase agreement with the head of another company, according to the settlement agreement.

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