Canadian securities regulators collected over $250 million from trading violations in 2009. According to the Winnipeg Free Press, the penalties were associated with Ponzi schemes, boiler rooms, insider trading, market manipulation, disclosure violations and other fraudulent activities. Illegal distribution of securities was the most frequent offense.
The Winnipeg Free Press reports that according to the Canadian Securities Administrators, regulators oversaw 141 cases involving 160 individuals and 103 companies last year. One of the year’s most significant cases came from the Ontario Securities Commission’s settlement agreements with BlackBerry-maker, Research in Motion. RIM paid about $77 million in fines and restitution to the OSC in February as part of a stock option backdating settlement with RIM executives.
