VANCOUVER -- The British Columbia Securities Commission has reached a settlement agreement with a Richmond man it had accused of insider trading.
In the agreement, Robert Menzies Findlay admits to the misconduct and agrees to pay $20,000 to the BCSC.
The insider trading occurred in 2015, according to the settlement agreement. At the time, Findlay was a consultant for Simba Energy Inc., a Vancouver-based oil and gas exploration company that is publicly traded on various stock exchanges. The company has since changed its name to Simba Essel Energy Inc.
On June 7, 2015, Simba entered a memorandum of understanding with Essel Group Middle East in which that company agreed to fund all future exploration costs for Simba's oil and gas assets in exchange for a 60 per cent participating interest in those assets. The deal was announced the following day.
According to BCSC, Findlay knew about the memorandum early because of his consulting role with Simba. On June 3 and 4, the settlement agreement says, Findlay purchased 300,000 shares in the company.
On the day the memorandum was announced, Simba's share price closed at 4.5 cents, which translated into a jump in value for Findlay's shares of about $7,000, according to BCSC.
The settlement agreement says Findlay is "remorseful" and agreed to admit to insider trading rather than face a hearing before the commission.
As part of the settlement, he is prohibited from trading or purchasing any securities or exchange contracts from any issuer with whom he has a special relationship, as defined by the terms of the B.C. Securities Act.
