A former Victoria financial advisor who bilked investors of more than $8 million has been denied his bid for parole.
Ian Thow is currently serving a nine-year sentence at Ferndale Institution in Mission after pleading guilty in 2010 to 20 charges of fraud.
The former senior vice president of the Berkshire Investment Group told a parole board Friday that he was only thinking of himself when he lied and manipulated close friends and business associates in order to steal their money. He offered a public apology to his victims and said he was motivated by greed and an out-of-control sense of entitlement.
But while the board praised Thow as a model prisoner, members said they had concerns about the "vague" and "rehearsed" nature of his answers to their questions. One board member called him a "con man."
"They are still concerned about the possibility of him committing an offence," National Parole Board spokesman Patrick Storey told reporters after the hearing.
"The nature of Mr. Thow's offences cast a great shadow across his credibility and they were very concerned about his ability to be truthful with his parole officer."
Before leaving Canada in 2005, Thow stole large sums of money from dozens of investors by convincing them to buy into non-existent securities. He used the cash to support a lavish lifestyle that included luxury cars, a yacht and a personal jet.
Thow disappeared in June 2008 after being charged with the frauds. He was arrested in Oregon in 2009 after an eight-month RCMP investigation.
In 2007, the B.C. Securities Commission banned him from the securities industry and imposed a $6-million fine, the largest in the commission's history. That fine was later reduced by court order to $250,000.
The commission called Thow's scam "one of the most audacious and callous frauds this province has ever seen."
Thow currently earns $300 a month in prison, one third of which goes to his victims.
