West Vancouver lawyer banned from B.C.’s investment market, financial regulator says
A West Vancouver lawyer has been permanently banned from practicing in B.C.’s investment market after allegedly generating over a billion dollars from illegal stock sales in the U.S.
In a news release Tuesday, the B.C. Securities Commission confirmed Frederick Langford Sharp, along with several associates, was named by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a defendant in a 2021 civil complaint in federal court.
According to the SEC judgement, it’s alleged that Sharp was the mastermind of a complex scheme from 2011 to 2019.
The SEC said Sharp and his associates “enabled control persons of penny stock companies, whose stock was publicly traded in the U.S. securities markets, to conceal their control and ownership of huge amounts of penny stock and then surreptitiously dump the stock into the U.S. markets.”
It’s said Sharp used various schemes including using offshore trading platforms, encrypted communications, and an accounting system to keep track of his clients’ stocks.
He allegedly generated over $1 billion in gross proceeds from the fraudulent scheme.
However, Sharp did not participate in the civil proceeding and in May 2022, the court entered a final judgement against him.
Sharp was ordered to pay over $50 million in monetary relief.
The BCSC said Sharp is also facing related criminal charges in U.S. federal court.
He has been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of securities fraud.
The BCSC said it will be banning Sharp from several acts including trading in or purchasing any securities or derivatives, becoming or acting as a registrant or promoter and engaging in promotional activities on his own behalf.
The BCSC said so far Sharp has not provided any evidence or submissions.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton hospitalized after prison attack
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton was attacked in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a "major assault."
DEVELOPING Defence rests without Donald Trump taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial
Donald Trump's lawyers rested their defence Tuesday without the former president taking the witness stand in his New York hush money trial.
Passenger killed, 30 injured as Singapore Airlines flight hits severe turbulence
One passenger was killed and 30 injured after a Singapore Airlines SIAL.SI flight from London hit severe turbulence en route on Tuesday, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Bangkok, officials and the airline said.
Feels like mid-30s in parts of Canada, while other areas expecting snow
Anything is possible this week, as far as Canada's weather is concerned, with forecasts ranging from scorching heat in some parts of the country to rain and snow in others.
Canada's inflation cools to 3-year low of 2.7%, in boost for rate cut bets
Canada's annual inflation rate slowed to a three-year low of 2.7 per cent in April, matching expectations, and core measures continued to ease, data showed on Tuesday, likely boosting chances of a June interest rate cut.
'Documents are fraudulent': Graceland is not for sale, Elvis Presley's granddaughter says in lawsuit
Riley Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis Presley, is fighting plans to publicly auction his Graceland estate in Memphis after a company tried to sell the property based on claims that a loan using the king of rock ’n’ roll's former home as collateral was not repaid.
Trump campaign calls 'The Apprentice' 'blatantly false,' director offers to screen it for him
Donald Trump's reelection campaign called 'The Apprentice,' a film about the former U.S. president in the 1980s, 'pure fiction' and vowed legal action following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But director Ali Abbasi is offering to privately screen the film for Trump.
Nestle to sell $5 pizza, sandwiches in the U.S. for Wegovy, Ozempic users
Nestle NESN.S will market a new, US$5 line of frozen pizzas and protein-enriched pastas in the United States which it says it designed specifically for people taking drugs such as Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss.
Flight PS752 victims' families say they're not sorry to hear of Iran president death
Members of a Canadian group representing families of those killed when Iranian officials shot down Flight PS752 in January 2020 say they are not sorry to hear of the death of Iran's president.