A former Victoria, B.C., financial adviser should spend seven years in jail for bilking investors of more than $4 million, a Vancouver judge ruled Thursday.
Ian Thow was sentenced in Vancouver provincial court to nine years in jail after pleading guilty to 20 of the 25 counts of fraud charges against him on Monday. The sentence was reduced to seven years in consideration of time already served.
Thow was also ordered to pay $3.9 million in restitution.
Before Thow left Canada in 2005, he bilked dozens of investors by convincing them to buy into non-existent securities. He used the money to support a lavish lifestyle that included luxury cars, a yacht, and a personal jet.
Thow, the former senior vice president of the Victoria-based Berkshire Investment Group, disappeared in June 2008 after being charged for the frauds. He was arrested a year ago in Portland, Oregon, 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."
The sentence handed down Thursday by Judge Jocelyn Palmer was more severe than what was requested by the Crown. Prosecutors had asked for a five-year jail sentence, reduced from seven years for time served.
Palmer said Thow's "unabashed greed" changed the lives of his victims and that he has shown no remorse for his crimes.
Representatives of the RCMP's Integrated Market Enforcement Team, which began investigating Thow in 2005, said Wednesday they were pleased with the sentence.
"This investigation has been lengthy and very stressful for the victims. I am glad to see a successful conclusion and wish closure for the victims," said Inspector George Pemberton, Officer-in-Charge of IMET.
