It looks like the BCSC has charged another con man in BC for securities fraud. A Victoria man named David Micheals has allegedly defrauded nearly 500 clients out of 65 million dollars. Part of his scam was to grossly exaggerate investment returns. Michaels was an unregistered promoter as well.
Its good to see that the securities commission is pursuing people like this and doing what they can to clean up the industry. These con artists give the industry a bad name. The securities industry is known for having a high percentage of psychopaths working within the industry. When most people think of psychopaths they think of killers like Clifford Olsen but most are people who simply have no conscience or empathy for others. Without a conscience these people are able to do whatever it takes to defraud their victims. It appears Michaels was another one of those people.
In the case of the stock broker who was heavily invested in this company he wasn't pocketing the money directly. He was receiving commissions while feeding Empower to keep his dream of being obscenely wealthy alive. He has dozens of victims who have collectively lost millions. There was always a contract a week or two from being signed. Sometimes he would claim contracts had actually been signed and then a week or two later claim, "the lawyers are still working on it."
Another ploy he used was to threaten his clients by claiming they had acted on inside information. This was another lie to prevent his victims from contacting the securities commission or IMET.
Remember the Magna deal? He once claimed he had read the signed contract on a Blackberry owned by Alex R.
The RCMP have a dedicated squad called IMET which stands for the Integrated Market Enforcement Team. One phone call to these people and the broker would be fully investigated. Every trade he ever made, clients interviewed including those who filed complaints against him with his former brokerage firm employer and the brokerage firm itself. IMET has a built in witness list. They have fingertip access to the name of every investor who ever purchased stock from this guy including their contact information. I doubt very many investors would protect a broker who ripped them off when sitting across a table from a highly skilled interviewer. Remember the Colonel Russell Williams interview? This is the level of expertise any reluctant witnesses would be facing.
I am barely scratching the surface with this guy and I am holding back on much, much more. All of it provable. There is a massive block of evidence available to convict this guy.
Judges and juries despise financial professionals who defraud their clients of their life savings.