B.C. securities regulator permanently bans man from investment markets

A sign at the B.C. Securities Commission office in downtown Vancouver is seen on Dec. 28, 2024. (CTV News)

British Columbia’s investment regulator has permanently banned a man from participating in the province’s financial markets after he was found liable for fraud and misrepresentation in a U.S. federal court.

The B.C. Securities Commission says Amar Bahadoorsingh was accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of “secretly” gaining control of multiple companies and selling off shares to generate illicit profits.

He was also found liable for “clandestinely” selling stakes in a company he had promoted to retail investors, the provincial regulator said in a statement Thursday announcing that Bahadoorsingh had been prohibited for life from participating B.C.’s capital markets.

The regulator says Bahadoorsingh was a resident of White Rock as recently as December 2023, when his driver’s licence listed a home address in the community.

The BCSC says Bahadoorsingh did not attend or otherwise participate in the U.S. federal court proceedings in Boston, where a judge ultimately granted the SEC’s motions for two default judgments against him in 2022 and 2023.

The U.S. court permanently barred Bahadoorsingh from participating in penny stock transactions and prohibited him from buying, selling or issuing any security, except those listed on a U.S. national exchange for his own personal accounts as a result of the judgments.

He was also ordered by the court to pay more than US$400,000 in civil penalties and more than US$980,000 in disgorgements and interest.

The BCSC’s executive director argued before the commission in a Feb. 24 filing that Bahadoorsingh’s “misconduct was deceitful and unscrupulous,” writing that a default judgment in the U.S. “conclusively establishes the liability of a defendant” and that the court was “required to accept as true all of the facts alleged.”

The BCSC director went on to accuse Bahadoorsingh of “flagrant disregard for U.S. securities laws,” saying he now poses “a significant ongoing risk to investors and the capital market of British Columbia.”

For his part, Bahadoorsingh told the commission the U.S. judgments were reached in error and should not be followed in B.C.

The commission panel ultimately found it was in the public interest to ban Bahadoorsingh from trading or purchasing securities in B.C. The judgment also requires Bahadoorsingh to resign any position he currently holds as a director or officer of a securities issuer or registrant.