Scorpion venom research company did not commit misconduct, B.C. regulator rules
A Vancouver-based health sciences company that was attempting to develop synthetic scorpion venom withheld relevant information from investors, but that omission did not necessarily have an impact on the company's stock price, B.C.'s financial regulator has ruled.
A panel of the B.C. Securities Commission dismissed the allegations against PreveCeutical Medical Inc. and its CEO Stephen Van Deventer in a decision issued this week.
The commission's executive director had accused PreveCeutical and Van Deventer of misconduct stemming from a news release the company issued in 2018. In the release, the company said it had raised approximately $6.5 million through a private placement, but it did not share that approximately $3.2 million of the total had already been paid or would be paid to consultants.
Panels of the BCSC have found these types of omissions to be misconduct in the past, such as when a blockchain company failed to disclose it would be paying most of the $5.4 million it had raised to consultants.
In this case, however, the panel found that PreveCeutical's omission, while misleading, did not necessarily constitute a "material" omission that would have a significant effect on the company's market value.
"The executive director must prove on a balance of probabilities not simply that investors were misled, but also that the impact would have been sufficiently serious from the point of view of reasonable investors that the effect on market price would have been significant," the panel explains in its decision.
The panel concluded that this was "an open question" in the case of PreveCeutical's news release, in part because the company had previously disclosed publicly that only about 10 per cent of its available funds were being spent on research and development.
Reasonable investors would have felt they weren't given all of the necessary facts in the news release, the panel found, but that doesn't necessarily mean there would be a significant effect on share prices.
"Although the executive director has come close, the evidence introduced before us has not established on a balance of probabilities that the omission which has been proven was material in the sense required by the relevant provisions of the (Securities) Act," the decision reads.
For this reason, the panel dismissed the allegations against PreveCeutical and Van Deventer.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
Family of toddler found dead at small-town Ont. daycare no closer to answers after year of investigation
A year has passed since two-year-old Vienna Irwin was found on the property of a home-based daycare in small-town Ontario, but her family says they are no closer to answers of what happened that day.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
Humboldt Broncos crash victims and families react to decision to deport truck driver
The family of one of the victims of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018 says they are 'thankful' for a decision by a Calgary immigration board to deport the driver of the truck involved.
Fatal plane crash reported near Squamish, B.C.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has confirmed it is working with local Mounties and the BC Coroners Service after a plane crash near Squamish, B.C. Friday night.
'God forgives but we don’t': Loud outburst from stabbing victim’s family during sentencing hearing
An emotional outburst in a London, Ont. courtroom Friday disrupted the sentencing hearing of a woman who pleaded guilty for her part in the death of 29-year-old Mohammed Abdallah.
Three dead after vehicle plunged down a 100-foot embankment in Shediac, N.B.
Three people have died after a vehicle veered off the road in Shediac N.B., Friday morning.
Appeal denied for Edmonton soldier accused of trying to kill her 3 children
An Edmonton woman found guilty of trying to kill her three children has been denied an appeal.