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by Mike Caswell

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have requested a 15-month sentence for Christian Fernandez, one of those accused in a scheme to promote a Vancouver company as "Curing Incurable Diseases and Giving Us Over 4,900% Potential Gains." Prosecutors claim that Mr. Fernandez, a Mexican citizen living in Miami, helped companies secretly pay to be placed in analyst reports. Using sham consulting agreements, phony invoices, shell companies in Canada and foreign bank accounts, he disguised payments made in the scheme, the government says.

The request from prosecutors comes as part of a case arising from the promotion of Emerald Health Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company associated with Vancouver's Avtar Dhillon. According to the government, Mr. Fernandez and others accepted $4.2-million in undisclosed payments from insiders to boost Emerald Health and other companies. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) Mr. Fernandez previously pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to tout securities for undisclosed compensation, leaving his sentence as the only matter of substance for the judge to determine.

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