B.C. court orders fraudster who owes $36.7M to pay from retirement funds

The Law Courts building, which is home to B.C. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, is seen in Vancouver, B.C., Nov. 23, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The British Columbia Securities Commission says a man behind one of the province's largest investment frauds has been ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court to use two retirement accounts to pay off a multimillion-dollar fine.

It says in a news release that Earle Douglas Pasquill owes the commission $36.7 million, and he was ordered by the court on Dec. 20 to forfeit any payments from two life income fund accounts.

Life income funds are a type of tax-deferred registered account regulated by the federal government that hold pension funds and other assets that can be withdrawn gradually during retirement.

The commission says Pasquill withdraws about $75,000 annually from the two accounts.

It says Pasquill along with Michael Patrick Lathigee, committed fraud while controlling a group of companies under the banner of the Freedom Investment Club that raised money from nearly 700 investors in 2008.

It says the commission ordered them in 2014 to disgorge $21.7 million and pay administrative penalties of $15 million each, triggering years of litigation that continues to this day.

The pair were banned from the market in 2015.

Lathigee moved to Las Vegas where his wife fought the B.C. regulator's enforcement efforts in a Nevada court.

He paid the commission US$350,000 and entered a settlement agreement in April 2023 after the Nevada Supreme Court deemed the commission's payment orders enforceable in the U.S.

Pasquill meanwhile transferred assets to his wife Vicki Pasquill, and the commission and the couple continue to battle it out in court.

The commission says Pasquill has not paid any of his sanctions.