Tag: Brenda Leong

THE BC SECURITIES COMMISSION – THE REGULATOR WHO REGULATES THEIR OWN INVESTMENTS!

-ORIGINALLY POSTED IN MARCH 2017- 

As recently reported by http://bcsecuritiescommissionasham.blogspot.ca  – it appears that the British Columbia Securities Commission (‘BCSC”) physically regulates corporations that they have physically invested into via their public sector pension and retirement operator (the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (“BCIMC”).

On the website operated by BCIMC it states, “With a global portfolio of more than $121.9 billion, bcIMC is one of Canada’s largest institutional investors within the capital markets. We invest on behalf of public sector clients in British Columbia. Our activities help finance the retirement benefits of more than 538,000 plan members, as well as the insurance and benefit funds that cover over 2.3 million workers in British Columbia.  Based in Victoria, British Columbia and supported by industry-leading expertise, we offer our public sector clients responsible investment options across a range of asset classes: fixed income; mortgages; public and private equity; real estate; infrastructure; and renewable resources. Our investments provide the returns that secure our clients’ future payments and obligations.”  

As you can see (below) in a portion of the BCSC’s 2015-2016 Annual Service Plan Report, we see that the BCSC holds just over $20.3 million in bcIMC investments.

In the section below – again taken directly from the BCSC’s 2015-2016 Annual Service Plan Report (and supposedly written by Brenda Leong) the writer outlines the BCSC mandate with respect to their investments.   One can immediately notice there is no disclosure that they regulate their own investments.  In the wording (underlined in red) we can see they indicate “Our investment policy allows us to buy units of the following bcIMC pooled funds….”  but again fail to acknowledge anything that can/and should be considered offside.

And in the underlined section above we see that in “their” opinion, their “investments do not expose the BCSC to significant credit or material market risk because we invest in liquid, high quality money market instruments, government securities, and investment-grade corporate debt securities.” 

IS THIS BECAUSE THEY REGULATE THEIR OWN INVESTMENTS AND THAT THEY WOULD NEVER SANCTION COMPANIES IN WHICH THEY HAVE INVESTED?

Turning our attention now back to the bcIMC website, we have found their end of March 2016 Investment Inventory List (Click on link).  At a simple glance, we see hundreds and hundreds of names of companies – some are well known and others many have never heard of.  There are literally companies from all over the world and some are located right here in British Columbia.

Here is where it gets interesting, there are names on this list that the BCSC has battled (or is currently battling) as it combats securities fraud, mis-representations, excess fee’s violations and other regulatory issues.

But that is all fine – I imagine there will be people that say, “Who cares, I am sure the IF one of these companies committed some sort of a securities crimes or had some sort of regulatory issue – I am sure the BCSC would conduct themselves in a professional manner…”

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the BCSC vs HSBC , known as 2016 BCSECCOM 185 – a matter that presented itself to the BCSC.  It seems that a division of HSBC had over-charged their own clients excess fees “Due to inadequate controls and supervision, it did not apply this policy consistently, which resulted in some clients paying extra fees.”   For their trouble, the Respondents (who’s head office is the Worlds’ 6th largest bank worth $2.4 TRILLION dollars) had to pay $300,000 CDN and costs of the investigation of $20,000.  And they had to pay just under $7.1 million of the fees the OVERCHARGED back to their clients. CASE DISMISSED!!

It is important to look at the timing of this matter – it was during a stretch of time AFTER former Executive Director Paul Bourque was fired or quit and BEFORE present BCSC Executive Director Peter Brady was put into the position.   You guessed it – BCSC Chair Brenda Leong approved this Settlement Agreement.

This definitely needs a closer look by a government watchdog organization!  Why is there no disclosure in the BCSC financial overview that the public reads that they in fact regulate companies in which they have investments into.

Bizarre days indeed at the BCSC!

17 MONTHS AND COUNTING….COWARDS AT BC SECURITIES COMMISSION REMAIN MUTE!

For 17 months now I have been posting in this blog – some of the posting have been direct and to the point.   I have challenged staff at the BCSC to refute anything they have read, I have reached out and tried to contact staff at the BCSC and challenged them to answer very simple questions.  We have even had some of the former investors contact the BCSC and and the cowards running their offices will not even respect these requests.    We have posted some very unflattering things about BCSC Chair Brenda Leong, Staff Litigators Olubode Fagbamiye and C. Paige Leggat, the complete failures of Lead Investigator Elizabeth “Liz” Chan, and the actions of other BCSC Staff including Colette Colter, Alan Keats, Peter Brady and Paul Bourque.    And yet through it all, they have remained completely silent.  They have not even had there very expensive legal representatives contact me to have me take down this blog…

Why?    Because everything I am saying is accurate and they do NOT want to challenge me in a real courtroom.   They truly are run by a group of misfits that do not have the best interests of investors at heart – despite this being part of their mandate.

We have recently been in contact with another group that was railroaded by the BCSC and their story is even worse than ours – stayed tuned for more!

 BCSC Chair Brenda Leong

Executive Director Paul Bourque (Former)

    C. Paige Leggat

 Elizabeth “Liz” Chan

 Executive Director Peter Brady

RESPONDENT CHALLENGES BC SECURITIES COMMISSION TO TAKE HIM TO COURT!

TO:  ALL STAFF AT THE BCSC

On May 18, 2016, and every day since that we have written on this blog, we have challenged you to answer simple questions regarding the matter we had before the BCSC.   To date, NOT one of you have bothered to reply, or even defend our allegations against the BCSC Staff.   For that, one could say you are very spineless and act without merit and we think you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

The BCSC appears to have two sets of rules and will only reply to something that supports their set agenda.   In addition, it appears they have the newspaper reporters in their pockets because not one of the slimy writers will write a story against the “government machine” in fear of wrinkling the wrong feathers.  They had NO problem reporting on day 1 of our hearing when the case was presented by the BCSC, reported a very biased one-sided story and did not cover the balance of the hearing when we presented our case and had 94% of the allegations (dollar amount) thrown out by the Panel.   

To ANYONE who doubts what is being said in this blog and that we are not telling the truth, we say this….

“Why isn’t one of the most powerful government agencies in BC, with unlimited funds to fight legal battles, suing us for defamation?  After sending out letters from your lawyer to Peter Harris and Christopher Burke – Why are you not suing them for defamation after threatening to do so?”    

In our opinion, there are 2 reasons for them cowering up and putting their heads in the sand:

1.  They are not able to sue for Libel/Defamation because we are not saying anything that is not true.  Our blog posts contain facts and have not exaggerated the events or allegations made against their Staff.  We have merely presented questions to the grossly incompetent BCSC Chair Brenda Leong and the person who appointed her, Premier Christy Clark.  Neither of these women will respond to our repeated request.  Items like BCSC staff manipulating evidence, not presenting the settlement offer, and the BCSC staff bringing assumptions into the hearing room ARE factually correct.  The have no reply because they have NO defense.     

2. Secondly, they do not want to argue against us, offer us another hearing, or answer our simple questions because they know the moment they do – they will be incriminating themselves and going down a road they definitely do not want to take.   THEY DO NOT WANT THE TRUTH TO COME OUT IN A REAL COURTROOM.   It would appear they don’t want to step outside their domain and have a real judge (outside of their precious Kangaroo Court) telling the world what is happening within their walls.  They will not answer Former Investors questions as to why they did not accept the Settlement Offer because they know the former investors will NOT like their answers and more than likely sue them for acting in bad faith.  And don’t forget (as posted earlier in this blog), we applied, through a Freedom of Information request, all correspondence from staff litigators to/from the Executive Director with respect to the Settlement Offer.    There was NOTHING – these bozo’s (Staff Litigators Olubode Fagbamiye / C. Paige Leggat and Executive Director Paul Bourque) didn’t even have a discussion with one another regarding the investors opportunity to recoup some (if not all) of their funds!   Incompetent!   

Now, we will issue you three FORMAL CHALLENGES:

CHALLENGE #1:   WE CHALLENGE YOU TO HAVE YOUR FLASHY LAWYERS  SEND US A LETTER DEMANDING WE SHUT DOWN OUR BLOG FOR BEING INACCURATE AND/OR SLANDEROUS;  

CHALLENGE #2:   WE CHALLENGE YOU TO SUE US FOR DEFAMATION/LIBEL IF FOR ONE MOMENT OUR ALLEGATION OF BCSC STAFF ACTING IN BAD FAITH (WHEN MANIPULATING EVIDENCE IN THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST US) IS NOT TRUE;

CHALLENGE #3:   FINALLY, WE CHALLENGE YOU TO FORMALLY ADDRESS THE SETTLEMENT PROPOSAL (AS OUTLINED EARLIER IN THIS BLOG) THAT THE FCC AND DCF INVESTORS WOULD HAVE BENEFITED FROM. 

IF YOU IGNORE US OR DO NOT HAVE YOUR COUNCIL COMMENCE LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST US IN THE NEXT 14 DAYS – WE WILL ASSUME THE ALLEGATIONS WE HAVE MADE AGAINST YOU TO BE VALID AND TO BE NON-CONTESTED.  WE WILL PUBLISH YOUR RESPONSE (OR LACK OF) IN THIS BLOG 15 DAYS FROM NOW.  

 We are begging for you to finally act – it has been 266 days (and counting) since my blog started and you have all had your head in the sand.   It his time people hear the truth.   We want to go to court against you so we can start the process of people hearing the truth consisting a facts and not some slanderous, biased press release issued by your incompetent staff, followed up by being rail-roaded by your inept lawyers in the hearing itself, and then having employees that work in the same office as the litigators making a decision as some “independent” panel.    Don’t forget, we have have a witness  (brought in to testify FOR the BCSC) agreeing with our side; and the Panel still found that Staff proved this allegation.   It is easy to conclude you people are all incompetent and possibly corrupt!

This is a telling time – the people are waking up and standing up to government agencies all over the World – specifically ones that appear to be corrupt!    The BCSC is an agency that desperately needs an overhaul.  It (like many of the agencies Clark’s government has touched) appears to be tainted.

Eagerly awaiting your reply Brenda Leong!   When are you going to wake up from that deep slumber?   How do you justify taking that $500,000 per year in salary when you don’t do your job?   And finally, how can you not support your shitty staff when people are accusing them of wrongdoing?   Spineless?  How do you think your staff truly feel about you abandoning them?   Word on the street is that many of your staff cannot stand you – and think you are in far over your head in the competence department!

We couldn’t agree more….

SPINELESS BCSC CHAIR BRENDA LEONG DOES NOT PROTECT HER STAFF?

Imagine working at the BCSC and being accused by a former Respondent of acting in BAD FAITH – and they imagine that your boss does not even have the gall to stand with you in denying any of these allegations.

This appears to be the case currently unfolding at the BCSC – we have lodge complaint after complaint regarding the actions of Staff Litigators Olubode Fagamiye and C. Paige Leggat.  Our allegations are that they manipulated key evidence when writing their Submissions on Liability in May 2014.

BCSC Chair Brenda Leong has been made aware of our allegations (and we have confirmation that she received the complaints) but yet in over 9 months she has yet to even respond to our correspondence.

This leads us to believe she is incompetent in doing her job or she just simply does not care about her Staff.   In that C. Paige Leggat resigned and/or was fired only days after my allegations and formal complaint to the Law Society of British Columbia – one can also conclude we are right and they are too chicken shit to go down this road with us.

Leong failing at her JOB is something we hope is remembered the next time her $500,000 per year salary is renewed by the BC government!

Ignoring emails questioning her Staff has been going on for months.   What kind of a boss does not (at least) defend her Staff?   She has literally left them out to dry!   It appears Ms. Leong only cares about her own agenda down on Georgia Street.    Shame on her!

We feel it is time she comes out of the little hole she is hiding in and deal with the many questions she is facing regarding the actions of her Staff!

letter-to-brenda-leong-september-9-2016

Brenda    BCSC’S CHAIR BRENDA LEONG

Source: Chen Zhiqiang

HOW IS BCSC CHAIR BRENDA LEONG IN TOP 3 COMPENSATED EXECUTIVES IN BC?

Recently, a message come across our desk showing the 2015-2016 Compensation Disclosure for the top 60 executives in the Province of British Columbia.   Shocked, we discovered the BCSC Chair Brenda Leong now ranks 3rd in the Province with compensation of a whooping $499,251, behind only the former President and CEO of the University of British Columbia ($576,054) and the astonishing salary of the CEO of BC Investment Management ($2,506,056).

As you have read previously in this blog, the BCSC have issued over $340,000,000 in fines and have only recouped (since 2013) a incredibly small $156,061.34 from Respondents found to have been in breach of securities laws in the province. This is not even .0004590 cents on the dollar!  Tell us again how this government organization is protecting the people of this wonderful province of British Columbia?   These are your government officials that have put these people in charge – if you or I had this little success doing our jobs we would be terminated instantly!

Now we question – HOW DOES BRENDA LEONG COMMAND A SALARY OF $500,000 PER YEAR WHEN FAILING MISERABLY IN DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF HER JOB?    When looking at the list, we can see several Executives in charge of BC’s universities that are making far less than 1/2 of what Leong brings into her home.  How is this possible?   And who has made this decision to pay her this enormous salary?   WAKE UP CHRISTY CLARK!

And to give you an idea of how much she is overpaid – ONLY 0.7% of BC’s WORKFORCE MADE MORE THAN $250,000 IN 2015-2016.   She is making double that!

As mentioned, it is time for change with these failing regulators and certainly time to look at the grossly over payment to a woman that is NOT doing her job – including standing up for her Staff and answering damn emails questioning her Staff’s actions.

This is very unfortunate!

bc-salaries-final

Source:  Integrity BC Facebook Page (as at October 14, 2016)

WHY DOES BRENDA LEONG REFUSE TO SUPPORT HER STAFF?

Again, we have reached out to the Chair of the BCSC (alleging wrong doing of her Staff) and she will not respond!

Neglecting her JOB is something we hope is remembered the next time her $500,000 per year salary is renewed by the BC government!  Ignoring emails questioning her Staff has been going on for months.   What kind of a boss does not (at least) defend her Staff?   She has literally left them out to dry!   It appears Ms Leong only cares about her own agenda down on Georgia Street.    Shame on her!

You can say what you want about me but at least I would have defended my Staff against allegations of wrong-doing (if I truly believed they were false allegations).

We feel it is time she comes out of the little hole she is hiding in and deal with the many questions she is facing regarding the actions of her Staff!

letter-to-brenda-leong-september-9-2016

Brenda    BCSC’S CHAIR BRENDA LEONG

Source: Chen Zhiqiang

WILL LEONG STILL BE ON DE JONG’S CHRISTMAS CARD LIST?

On July 7, 2016, we received an email addressed to BC’s Finance Minister – the Hon. Michael De jong.   The email was written by the former Director (Peter Harris) of U-Go Brands – a company that has had issues with the BCSC for the past 2-3 years.

BC-Finance-Minister-Mike-De-Jong     Finance Minister Michael De jong

Source:  Apnaroots.com

It is very apparent that Mr. Harris just wants to have a conversation with BCSC Chair Brenda Leong to discuss the issues surrounding his treatment from the Staff at the BCSC.   He has sent dozens of emails, has tried to call her, has filed formal charges with the RCMP, and has tried to get politicians (the Hon. Christy Clark, Mr. De jong, and even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) to hear his voice.   But to no avail!

Her ignoring him has led to frustration which has seemed to boil over with his July 7 email to BC Finance Minister.

After reading Mr. Harris’s scathing email, we decided to write an email to Brenda Leong – after all, it appears all the issues people are currently having with the BCSC revolve around her decision to not respond to people that are looking for answers from her regarding the actions of her Staff.    While Mr. Harris emails are of a different tone and demeanor than ours, the message is still the same – WE ALL JUST WANT ANSWERS!   We feel our emails have been polite, candid, and to the point but to date, she has failed miserably to do this portion of her job.

Mr. Harris’s email is found here – along with my email to the same parties that Mr. Harris CC’d his email to:

Hon. Michael De jong emails – July 7, 2016

NOTE: We have redacted some of the wording of Mr. Harris’s email for legal reasons.  We have no business and/or knowledge of the allegations made by Mr. Harris against Mr. De jong’s personal life.

FOI REQUEST PROVES OUR BIGGEST FEAR

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???

Paige Leggat  (Source: mypersonaltrainervancouver.com)

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

teresa-mitchell-banks    (Source: mingpaocanada.com)

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

paul-bourque         (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! 

 

ATTEMPTS TO GET ANSWERS FROM THE BCSC’s TOP EXEC GO UNANSWERED

BrendaBCSC Chair Brenda Leong

(Photo: Chen Zhiqiang)

Starting in May 2016, we starting asking the BCSC’s Chairman, Ms. Brenda Leong answers to some fairly significant questions.   Questions that we think need to be answered once and for all by the people at the BCSC.

Letter to Brenda Leong – May 9, 2016 – (“Explanation on Decision?”)

Letter to Brenda Leong – May 11, 2016 – (“Settlement Not Presented?”)

Letter to Brenda Leong – May 13, 2016 – (“Manipulating Evidence?”)

Letter to Brenda Leong – May 16, 2016 – (“Did Panel make Error?”)

Unfortunately, Ms. Leong has failed to answer even the simplest of question in a timely manner.   Why will this highly paid public official not stand behind anyone from her organization and support their actions?  Or, if her Staff have in fact made some serious mistakes, why does she continue to let this occur on her watch?

Our letters were originally just sent to her – now they will be sent to other government officials, the media, and published in this blog.    Ms. Leong cannot continue avoiding these questions – it is very important that they are answered.

And one thing we can promise – they will continue until we have our answers.

AGAIN…RESPONDENTS CAN’T GET PAST THE LAWYER TO PRESENT SETTLEMENT OFFER

One thing I will give Staff Litigator C. Paige Legatt is at least she didn’t make us wait 7 weeks for a response on this one.   However, her response again indicated the ONLY way she would take a Settlement Proposal to the Executive Director was if I met the terms set by them – the litigators themselves!   This was becoming extremely frustrating and demeaning to the Respondents.

I was being forced into a hearing for absolutely something I did not do – I did not commit a $5.45 million fraud as they had alleged.   The process (especially for a self-represented Respondent) was fixed and I began to see the true-colors of the people at the BCSC – they do NOT have the best interest of investors) or anyone else for that matter) as a priority.

It was at this point, the Respondents realized this was not a level playing field and that the entire BCSC mandate were simply just words.   We were now forced into fighting this war with an opponent that was not playing fair.   It wasn’t until after the hearing that we truly saw what the Staff at the BCSC were prepared to do in an attempt to prove their case.

For any of you (specifically the former investors in FCC and DCF) that want to inquire to the BCSC why Staff did not forward this viable Settlement Offer to the Executive Director (with the possibility of receiving dollars through the development of the project) we suggest you call them.   Their number for inquiries is 604-899-6854 or call the main switchboard at 604-899-6500 and the lovely receptionist will put you through to the right department to have your questions answered.  They are a public organization serving the people of British Columbia and they have to answer you.    That being said, to date, we have yet to receive a response from Brenda Leong – the Chair of the BCSC.

What are they possibly hiding?

[Click on the link…]

January 17, 2014 – LEGATT to RESPONDENT