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Van Sun says BCSC shows some teeth clawing back fines

2024-03-05 09:19 ET - In the News

The Vancouver Sun reports in its Tuesday edition that the B.C. Securities Commission is again trying to collect on one of its largest penalties, by going after the fraudster's retirement savings. The Sun's Gordon Hoekstra writes that Vancouver resident Earle Douglas Pasquill owes $36.7-million in penalties issued by a BCSC tribunal in 2015, but has not paid a cent. The tribunal issued the penalties to Mr. Pasquill and associate Michael Patrick Lathigee after it found they raised tens of millions of dollars from nearly 700 investors without telling them the real estate development projects pitched were in serious financial difficulty. The panel also found millions raised to invest in U.S. foreclosures had been redirected to prop up the real estate developments with unsecured loans that went bust. Mr. Pasquill and Mr. Lathigee were each issued a $15-million fine and ordered to pay back the $21.7-million lost by investors. The securities commission had made an initial attempt to go after about $700,000 in retirement savings, but in 2021 the Appeal Court of B.C. ruled against the regulator. The B.C. government made changes to the Securities Act in 2023, to "expressly permit" the payment by way of a pension benefit.

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