Month: January 2018

In an article from the Vancouver Sun, we find a businessman from the lower mainland is suing (among others) the British Columbia Securities Commission for an astounding $480 million.

The Sun reports “(Michael James) Savage’s expansive 43-page counter-claim alleges a “miscarriage of justice” as a result of wrongful conviction and defamatory statements that includes malicious prosecution, abuse of process, negligence, failure to disclose evidence, and breaches of his Charter of Rights.

Sounds familiar – Mr. Savage joins the ranks of dozens of people that are complaining about the gang of thugs down at the BCSC.

Unfortunately for Mr. Savage’s case, there is no doubt the BCSC will employ their infamous “escape route” (rather than tender valid arguments) –  in a similar lawsuit launched against the BCSC (and many of their staff), the spineless legal team representing the Defendants brought forward an application that would have seen that particular Plantiff bring forward $120,000 to cover the costs of the Defendants IF a judge found his allegations unwarranted.   How does a poor man get a case brought forward regarding the BCSC?

Again, Staff at the BCSC show their true colors and run to the hills – rather than to defend themselves!  What are they hiding?

Mr James – if you are reading this blog – please contact me via my blog as I would very much like to talk to you.   There are many of us!

This blog was originally posted on DECEMBER 5, 2017…

On June 14, 2013, the incompetent staff at the British Columbia Securities Commission brought the bogus Notice of Hearing allegations to our doorstep.    In addition, they also issued an Order to Freeze Property (see below)  to an assortment of companies that I was a part of – whether or not they were related to the Falls development or not.    At least 2 of the companies had NO relationship with any of the Respondents to the allegations of fraud.   One was a retail business that I was involved in 2011 and 2012.    This was a total dickhead move by the BCSC that ended up costing money to have those funds returned/released.  Again, a complete abuse of power from Staff at the BCSC.

The assets were namely bank accounts that belonged to the companies – West Karma Ltd., Deercrest Management Ltd, 0966841 B.C. Ltd., and my personal bank account.    All together, the bank accounts had roughly $65,000 in them (with the majority of the money being held in the numbered company).

After the hearing and the sanctions were issued by the BCSC, it would be the Staff (at the BCSC) responsibility to apply to have any monies seized or recovered from a Respondent and returned to the investors.  This falls under section 161 (1)(g) of the BC Securities Act and is in clear black and white.

It was determined by the Panel (in their sanctioning document) that the money in the numbered company belong to the numbered company and NOT to Wharram or any of the former investors in FCC or DCF – this was made very clear by Nigel Cave – the Panel Chair during our hearing.

4.5 YEARS LATER

As hard as it is to imagine….4 1/2 years AFTER the order was issued,  the utter failures down at the BCSC have yet to apply to receive the nearly $11,000 that was in the West Karma Ltd. bank account.   Investors would have a claim to these funds.

The BCSC once again proves their complete incompetence at EVERYTHING they do.    Why has it taken this amount of time for them to react?   Again, who is running this ship?  Is this on BCSC Chair Brenda Leong’s shoulder?  Lawyer Olubode Fagbamiye? Executive Director Peter Brady? Director of Enforcement Doug Muir? Collectively, these clowns make over $1 million dollars per year – why do they continue to fail the people in the Province of British Columbia over and over again?  Incompetence?  Laziness?

And let’s not forget about the former investors that have to apply…and then wait 3 years to get their proportionate share of the recovered funds.   Who makes these policies?

https://www.bcsc.bc.ca/Enforcement/Returning_Funds_to_Investors/

Even if they decide to WAKE UP and start doing their jobs, the former investors need to wait for another 3 years to recoup any of these funds – who makes these policies?   That would put it the better part of a decade for anyone to receive returned funds….

Only down at the BCSC does the comedy of errors continue day after day!    When can the former investors of FCC and DCF expect you to do your jobs and secure the $10,941.59 (and other funds) for their benefit?   And why is it taking me to tell you this?

TIME TO WAKE UP….OR RESIGN!  COMPLETE IDIOTS!!

In a shocking encounter this past week, I heard directly from a semi low-level employee at the British Columbia Securities Commission that enforcement staff are routinely told to “drum up business” – and told to bring potential cases to the forefront or risk losing their jobs.

Recently, I was on a family outing with my family in Surrey and I ran into a CURRENT employee from the BCSC.   I think we mutually recognized each other and I went over and asked if they were still employed by the Commission.  They indicated they were and I then asked why no one at the Commission would answer my questions sent to them in writing and those that are on this blog.   They indicated I was “under their skin” and that most think I am acting very unprofessional by having this blog.   They see it as untrue and that I just have a bone to pick with the Commission after what happened to me.    I indicated that I was not writing this blog with that in mind but they might be right.    I took pride in the fact that they told me there are several Commission employees that look at this blog daily.  I have verified this claim by checking the hits made by BCSC employees and can confirm this is true.

After more small talk, I then asked how many employees were employed in the Enforcement Section – they didn’t know the answer to that but they acknowledged there were many.    I asked how do so many staff work on enforcement matters when there is not really that many (as of today there are only a small few that the enforcement staff would be working on) and this is when they said something I will never forget.   They said words to the effect, “the enforcement staff at the Commission will always have work because they understand that if they don’t have cases to investigate they would no longer be needed at the Commission“, and that “they are told to drum up business during slow times”.    This would equate to the RCMP being told to write more tickets to motorists during slow times or risk losing their jobs.

This is incredible – let’s assume for a moment that NO ONE is committing securities violations yet you have these “reckless” staff members out there just looking to find something wrong (in their eyes).  Crazy times!

Have any of you looked at the BCSC’s INVEST RIGHT Twitter page lately?   Why is everyone so happy?  Are these investors (and their brokers) really that happy with the BCSC?    Are these photos of real people that are owed the millions and millions of restitution/disgorgement orders issued by the BCSC in the last few years?

Why has the BCSC went “HOLLYWOOD” with the smoke and mirrors routine with their latest ad campaigns?   Do you think the expressions on these peoples faces really represent what is happening in BC’s capital markets?  Is their motto,  “INVEST WITH A BCSC REGISTERED ADVISOR (or is it Adviser?) AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY LIKE THESE PEOPLE?”   Even the name BCSC INVEST RIGHT has its own hidden message – if you want to Invest Right then come on down to the BCSC!!  At a minimum – it is misleading by nature!  Take a look….

SOURCE:  BCSC INVESTRIGHT Twitter Page 

The bottom line is that they are failing the people of BC – specifically in the capital market – they have done very little to protect the people of this province from becoming victims – and it has been going on for years!  They want you to think everything is perfect when it is not….if they wanted to be accurate, they should show real emotions of investors that have lost everything.   Show people that are not actors (or models) that are dealing with real life.

The people at the BCSC are the real scam artist.   Their ads are so misleading – follow us and your investments will be perfect!   Look at the pictures again!  It’s horrendous that their twitter followers are bombarded daily with these misleading, bullshit posts.

WAKE UP!  Or they are NEVER going to change!

Is the BCSC’s Pension Fund part of a huge tax cheat scandal known as the Paradise Papers?

Should this come to no surprise to anyone?   As we blogged in this post on September 18, 2017, the British Columbia Securities Commission regulates the very same companies that are under the umbrella of the B.C. Investment Management Corporation (“bcIMC”)  – the BC public sector pension fund.  As you can see we questioned how they can ethically keep things above board when they regulate companies that essentially affect their bottom line and pays millions of dollars out to BCSC staff members.  We went on to point out a couple of entities that the BCSC “regulated” after wrongdoing.    But now, can we add the title “ALLEGED TAX CHEAT” to the ongoing saga around the public sector in British Columbia?

According to The Breaker.news website, “British Columbia’s public sector pension investor is listed in the Paradise Papers, the database of offshore investments leaked to a German newspaper and published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.  B.C. Investment Management Corporation, which goes by the brand bcIMC, reported $135.5 billion in assets under management for the year ended March 31, 2017.bcIMC and several related companies are in the database, including a bcIMC company registered in Bermuda at the tax haven’s now famous Appleby law firm.”

When the author of the article above contacted representatives from bcIMC and the BC Government for comment, their Chair (Mr. Peter Milburn) and BC Finance Minister Carole James did not respond – why would they?   Furthermore, what are they now hiding or covering up?

This is the second time in recent days the publicly appointed Ms. James decided to keep her mouth shut.   The Vancouver Sun ran an article on Friday (November 17, 2017) discussing the dismal record of the BCSC in their feeble attempts to collect fines and disgorgement from those that have broken (or alleged to have broken) securities laws in BC.     NOTE:  WE BLOGGED ABOUT THIS SAME SUBJECT IN MAY 2016!!

-CLICK HERE –

On Monday, November 20, 2017, the same reporter called on Ms. James for comment on the BCSC’s lack of action and again – as you can see here – she decided to have no comment.    Sounds just like her predecessor – the Un-Honorable Mike de jong!  LOL!

What a group of misfits!!  When are the people of this Province going to wake up?

On May 11, 2016, we sent a letter to BCSC Chair BRENDA LEONG and requested she provide (to us) any correspondence between her Staff Litigators (C. Paige Leggat and Olubode Fagbamiye) and the Executive Director ( Paul Bourque ) regarding the Settlement Offer we were trying to bring forward that would possibly have brought funds back to the former investors in FCC and DCF.

As you see in this letter FOI Request #1617-0005 – Reply from BCSC – June 16, 2016.pub , Ms. Leong indicates there are no records matching my request.   We don’t even want to begin to understand why there would be NO correspondence between lawyers/clients when millions of dollars could have been at stake for the investors – how is this even possible??

Not having internal correspondence between relevant parties (considering what was at stake for the former investors) reeks of unprofessionalism by Staff and certainly does not give any confidence they truly had the best interest of the investors during all relevant times.  

That being said, Leong is either lying or (for whatever reason) there truly are NO records of correspondence between her star lawyers and their higher ups.   Either way, this translates into a huge problem for the BCSC.    Here’s why….

Assuming she is not lying, as per the Code of Ethic’s on the  Law Society of British Columbia’s website , a lawyer must present ANY settlement offer it is presented to their client to avoid hearing.  Staff DID NOT do this as they have admitted this in letters to the Respondents.   In a file of this magnitude, and with the numerous attempts by us to settle – there is not one internal document related to the settlement offer that was presented?   We truly find this hard to believe but if true – these are the people that are “protecting the capital markets in BC”???    Time for a WAKE UP CALL BRITISH COLUMBIA!!

And if she is lying then this becomes a bigger problem as she has been appointed to that position by elected government officials – more than likely Finance Minister Michael De jong or Premier Christy Clark.

In the first scenario above, we have the facts:

• The Respondents submitted a Settlement Offer to the Commission on November 7, 2013 – Staff did not respond until December 30, 2013.
• When  Staff did reply, they stated they had NOT taken the Settlement Offer to the Executive Director and would only do so IF we plead guilty to ALL allegations AND paid approximately $5.8 million in fines and disgorgement.
• As of June 16, 2016, we now have it in writing that there in NO communications whatsoever between Staff and the Executive Director with respect to any discussion regarding the Settlement Offer.

As we were preparing this latest blog post – something remarkable just became VERY apparent….what is happening down at the BCSC???

  (Source: mypersonaltrainervancouver.com)

C.Paige Leggat – Staff Litigator                                                                              RESIGNED OR TERMINATED IN 2014

    (Source: mingpaocanada.com)

Teresa Mitchell-Banks  – Director of Enforcement                                          RESIGNED OR TERMINATED IN 2015

         (Source: cbc.ca)

Paul C. Bourque –  Executive Director                                                                  RESIGNED IN 2016

These are the 3 major parties that would have been responsible for negotiating, accepting or denying the settlement agreement WITH the investor in mind.

PLEASE….FORMER INVESTORS IN FCC AND DCF – HELP US GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS.   AGAIN, THIS SETTLEMENT OFFER WAS NOT EVEN PRESENTED TO THE ONLY PERSON THAT COULD HAVE ACCEPTED IT ON YOUR BEHALF!      

******CONTACT THE BCSC AND FIND OUT WHY!******

604-899-5600 or email them at: inquiries@bcsc.bc.ca 

IF THEY DON’T ANSWER YOU, GO ABOVE THEIR HEADS AND CONTACT YOUR LOCAL MLA OR OTHER GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL!  ITS VITAL! 

It appears that as long as a quarter century ago, there was concern with the actions of British Columbia’s securities regulator.   We found to following on Abel Danger with respect to BC whistle blower Adrien Du Plessis who uncovers what our financial regulators have their fingerprints all over.   Take a look…

du Plessis worked as a stock fraud investigator privately and for the B.C. Securities Commission. He describes many of the stock frauds and scams he encountered and how, much to his chagrin and surprise, the Provincial Government and its regulators seemed to be complicit in this fraud by not prosecuting the many scammers working through the Vancouver Stock Exchange.

                                                       **************************
A Short History of Vancouver Stock Exchange Fraud

Looking back at the very incompetent Staff at the British Columbia Securities Commission that mishandled our file – we can’t help but mention this failure – Mrs. Colette Colter.   No matter the job she was tasked with – she always seemed to screw something up.  We hope she sings better than she types!  Let’s take a look…

      BCSC’s Mrs. Colette Colter (left)

Source:  Facebook

THE WRONG DATE ON THE NOTICE OF HEARING

It all started with the day that Staff brought forward their phony allegation that Wharram and the Corporate Respondents absconded with $5.45 million dollars.    Albeit it was not Colter that had anything to do with investigating the allegations, or even bringing them forward for that matter but that isn’t our point.    Facts are, her superiors gave her the simple Grade 5 task of physically typing the Notice of Hearing that was the foundation of the allegations against the Respondents.     For the record, the date we received the documents from the BCSC was June 14, 2013…not 2012 as you see from Page 5 of the Notice of Hearing below:

And confirmation the document was created by Colter….

We get that in the overall realm of things its not really that big of a deal – typos happen all the time.    But this document is probably the most important one of the entire matter – this is the document that formally brings allegations of wrongdoing to a Respondent.   You would think a person would be able to type the date – specifically that right year.   That being said, we can confirm people FAR higher than her up the chain at the Commission (including the failures C. Paige Legatt, Olubode Fagbamiye,  Lori Chambers, Mark Hilford, Elizabeth “Liz” Chan, C. Paul Bourque and Brenda Leong) ALL saw this document before it was sent out.   No one had the brains capable of noticing and correcting this?  These people make millions of dollars every year to be so-called “professionals”!

When asked about the wrong date during cross-examination, the flunky Chan fumbled her words in the most incompetent way!

Its interesting in that Chan admits to making “note” of the mistake before it was sent out – admitting she saw the mistake – and yet still allowed it to be sent to the Respondents?   Maybe this is why she is no longer employed at the Commission???

WILL SAY STATEMENT HAD WRONG NAME

Typos are one thing but getting a name completely wrong on a legal document is pathetic.   Now, the following may or may not have been Colter’s fault as there is a chance that the boneheads C. Paige Legatt and Olubode Fagbamiye could have been at fault when they dictated her their notes.

Either way,  as a Respondent, we were legally able to prepare for our hearing by receiving a Will Say Statement from Staff that would allow us to prepare for our cross examination of their witness.  In this case, it was one of the former investors that was going to appear for Staff.  Weeks before the hearing, Staff sent us the Will Say Statement and as you can see below it states, “He invested in Falls Capital Corp. on the recommendation of Susan Wong of Portfolio Strategies Corporation.”   This was very odd as I had NEVER heard of a Susan Wong that worked for that firm.

When we questioned their witness about it during the cross-examination, he indicated he had never heard of a Susan Wong:

Fagbamiye was hilarious – I remember actually thinking how much of a complete idiot he was when trying to stammer out the words in his thick accent…how could a “highly” trained lawyer be such a train-wreck in a hearing room??  I also remember glancing at C. Paige Legatt and seeing her just staring at him in almost disbelief.   The hearing was not a great time in my life but I remember being amused while they went through their binders trying to get the the bottom of their feeble mistakes!  The sweat on Fagbamiye’s brow was showing!

As you guessed it – the infamous Colette Colter was the author of this document as well….

SENDING CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS FROM ANOTHER CASE

And finally, we have what can only be called a careless mistake Colter made while sending highly confidential emails.  These emails were sent to me and were from another matter with a completely different Respondent.   Simply, they sent me documents that were suppose to go to someone completely else.   Colter is a mess at this point in the junction…

As you can see above, she attached document “#1602059 Wood – Executive Directors Reply Submissions” .   She recalled the email a short while later but nonetheless, this poor Respondents personal correspondence was sent out to the wrong recipient because of Mrs. Colette Colter.  #FAILURE

We feel that if you are going to call yourself a Legal Assistant (and physically take a pay cheque from a government agency) that it should require complete professionalism.   And you should probably not make fundamental GRADE 5 mistakes – really, how hard can it be?   Case law tells us that IF a policeman writes the wrong date on a speeding ticket their is the possibility that a judge will throw out the charges yet this simpleton can make blatant mistake after mistake and still hold her job?   Again, this seems to be the norm at the BCSC!  When is it going to change?

In the near future, we are going to highlight different fuck ups from the people down at the good ole British Columbia Securities Commission….as always stay tuned!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

As we enter into 2018, one can only wonder what is going to happen this year down at the good ole British Columbia Securities Commission.  Our prediction is simple – another year of NOTHING!   Fines will remain uncollected….Brenda Leong will still collect her $500,000 pay cheque while failing the people of this Province….and dopes like Olubode Fagbamiye will still do ANYTHING to make a case against Respondents.

CRIMINAL CHARGES ARE NOT IN THE BCSC’S BEST INTEREST 

I have had people ask me recently why they BCSC did not pursue criminal charges against me (and several other of their many allegations over the years).   In actuality, the BCSC bark is much stronger than its bite.   For many accused fraudsters life continues as if nothing even happened – they simply move to another profession or move out of the Province in which they were charged.   It is in these situation that former investors fell even more helpless and that there truly is no recourse against the wrongdoing.

It is our opinion that the crux of the matter is that the BCSC (and their counterparts in other Provinces) prefer it this way – for a couple of different reasons:

First, they are complete egomaniacs that want to control every inch of an investigation – they are able to throw whatever they want at the wall and hope it sticks.   In a criminal investigation the level of proof (before a judge will issue a warrant)  and even hear allegation in a court room is far greater.   Investigators  (including the complete and udder failure Elizabeth “Liz” Chan and her boss at the time – the flunky Lori Chambers) are able to run around with their badges and have relatively no experience – remember Chan was a simple  Chartered Accountant when she started at the BCSC.   How does a CA end up with a badge?   She was trained to add numbers up and wasn’t even able to do that right – how can the BCSC justify giving this inept person conduct on a file?

And secondly (and more importantly) they are able to bring many bogus allegations against Issuers WITHOUT having to really prove anything.   They do NOT have to appear in front of a judge or jury and need to only prove their case on the “balance of probabilities” (50.1%) in front of their OWN peers – rather than in a courtroom where a far greater case must be presented to prove  allegations against any Respondent.  Respondents really don’t stand a chance and the process certainly is not fair to all parties – despite this being a mandate on the BCSC’s website.

Please understand, the BCSC is run internally where Respondents must go against an Executive Director, lawyers and a Panel of appointed Commissionaires whom are ALL paid by the same internally run BC Securities Commission.   Shockingly, during our hearing it was an almost daily event to see the flunky lawyers walk out with Chan and get in the elevator.  One can almost be certain that they had private meetings to discuss strategy during the days of the hearing – this would NEVER happen in a criminal case with real lawyers and judges.   During the hearing, when we asked the Panel Chair Nigel Cave about this his reply was, “We are not even going to entertain that comment…”.   He completely swept my question under the rug as they did with many of my comments.

And let’s not forget the investors – as we blogged in the past, the BCSC can’t even collect on these fines.   They have levied fines of OVER $340 million dollars and have only collected a small fraction over the years as you can see here in this blog.   What a complete joke this system is – completely broken and in need of an overhaul starting at the top with Brenda Leong!  Investors deserve better!