B.C.'s financial watchdog is alleging that an American man with a shady history used a false name to commit a multi-million-dollar fraud in Canada.
Robert Lee Flickinger has been permanently banned from the futures and securities business and from acting as officer of a publicly traded company in the U.S., but the B.C. Securities Commission says that he used an alias to build up $6.42 million in investments in purported oil and gas companies north of the border.
According to investigators, Flickinger diverted at least $3.5 million worth of investments into personal accounts or corporate accounts that he controlled. He allegedly convinced his employees that they were generating income for an independent company.
The BCSC believes that Flickinger began operating in Vancouver in 2007 under the alias Robert Reynolds, selling partnerships in two companies -- Lavaca III Limited Partnership and Gulf Basin Limited Partnership.
Besides creating a fake identity to hide his past, the BCSC says that Flickinger stole the identities of real people and listed them as managers and directors of the two companies. He is also accused of making up fake biographies for the people whose names he stole, listing credentials and experience they did not have.
None of the allegations against Flickinger have been proven. He is scheduled to appear at a BCSC hearing on Jan. 27.
