RE: Coffintrader! BANNED FROM TRADING
CALGARY — A Calgary rig worker has been banned from trading securities for 10 years and ordered to pay $135,000 for illegally attempting to manipulate the public market.
An Alberta Securities Commission panel found in March that David De Gouveia (a.k.a. David Gouveia) had used his weeks off from the oilfields to become a day trader and convinced Magellan Minerals Ltd., a Vancouver gold mining company, to hire him as a promoter.
It found he engaged in a pattern of trading including upticks (trading at a higher price than the immediately preceding trade); high closes (closing trades on an uptick); wash trades (acting as both seller and purchaser in the same transaction); and uneconomic trades (selling and then immediately buying shares at a higher price.)
The ASC said Friday De Gouveia is required to pay an administrative penalty of $75,000 plus costs of $60,000.
It stated that his misconduct distorted trading and price signals in the market and “exposed market participants to direct financial harm as a result of misinformed investment decisions.”