Former B.C. CEO gets 10-year market ban after selling shares while prohibited

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

The B.C.-based former CEO of a publicly traded company has agreed to pay a provincial regulator more than $121,000 to settle allegations of prohibited trading.

William Trainer entered the settlement agreement with the B.C. Securities Commission earlier this month, and the document was published online Tuesday.

The settlement stems from conduct that occurred in August 2024, when Trainer was the CEO of Vicinity Motors Corp., an electric bus company that traded on the TSX-V and Nasdaq exchanges.

The company is now in receivership, according to a statement from the BCSC announcing the settlement.

Vicinity management applied to the regulator on Aug. 7, 2024, for a “management cease trade order,” which the BCSC says is an order that “generally prohibits trading of shares of a company by that company’s CEO and CFO.”

The company requested the order because it knew it would be unable to file interim financial statements and related documents by the Aug. 14, 2024, deadline.

The application for the order included a consent form electronically signed by Trainer, acknowledging his prohibition from trading in the company’s shares.

Despite this, about two months later, Trainer sold approximately 997,000 shares of Vicinity for proceeds of more than $91,000, an average of about nine cents per share.

According to the settlement, Trainer contacted the BCSC “promptly,” through his lawyer, after learning that the regulator had launched an investigation into his conduct.

Trainer has no prior history of securities-related misconduct in B.C., the settlement notes.

To resolve the matter, Trainer agreed to pay $91,403 as a “disgorgement” of the money he made from his prohibited trading, as well as a $30,000 penalty to the BCSC.

He also agreed to a 10-year ban on serving as a director or officer of any securities issuer, with an exception for a family company called SSC Ventures (No.51) Ltd., for which he and his spouse are the only directors.

Trainer is further subject to restrictions on his trading and purchasing of securities and derivatives for 10 years and banned from acting as a registrant or promoter for the same length of time.