The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Toronto brokerage Echelon Wealth Partners used to do very little trading in U.S. over-the-counter stocks -- then it hired Stephen Burns. The Globe's David Milstead and Clare O'Hara writes that in the four years after Mr. Burns joined the investment dealer in 2018 as managing director of electronic trading, regulators say Echelon executed more than $185-million of trades in shares on the U.S. OTC market. OTC shares are typically illiquid and receive little regulatory oversight -- and have been frequent targets of stock-manipulation schemes in the past. Neither U.S. nor Canadian authorities allege that Echelon itself initiated any suspect trades, but in a recent disciplinary action launched against the dealer and Mr. Burns, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) alleges they both failed to do due diligence on four customers -- all foreign brokerages -- that used accounts at the Toronto dealer to trade heavily in U.S. OTC stocks. CIRO alleges Echelon failed to properly control and supervise trading by its customers. Those customers, and their clients, have been tied to multiple cases of securities fraud alleged by U.S. regulators and prosecutors.