Securities fines rarely paid in Canada: report
If there can be anything positive to take away from securities fraud, anything at all, it must be that violators are punished.
For scamming or duping or whatever it may be, financial advisors or crooked portfolio managers are dinged for their missteps. Their licenses stripped, their wallets lightened.
But a new investigation into securities fines throws that last point in dispute, and suggests Canada’s securities penalties are a “farce,” as one source says.
According to CBC News, nearly two-thirds of fines levied by provincial securities regulators in Canada over the past five years have gone unpaid.
The CBC investigation went through province by province, finding that the great deterrent to securities violations – fines, often in the tens of thousands of dollars – are rarely recouped.
*Bing: How to check out a financial advisor
Across the country, only two provinces received payment of more than 50 per cent of securities fines levied between 2007 and 2011: Alberta and Quebec, which received 77 per cent of fines handed out, the highest by far in the nation.
But it gets rapidly worse from there.
The national average for paid securities fines between 2007 and 2011 sits well below 40 per cent, and some provinces can barely crack 20 per cent.
The lowest, British Columbia, only received 2.9 per cent of fines during that period.
“It’s all a farce,” said George Schwartz, the president of a now defunct Ontario company that was fined by regulators. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. And people take it to be a farce and the regulators are not enforcing it.”
According to one governing body, the B.C. Securities Commission, collecting fines is difficult because violators often skip town, end up in jail or go broke themselves.
Of the $444 million in penalties levied between 2007 and 2011, $285 million has not been paid.
Posted by: bruce hodgson | Jun 29, 2021 10:24:43 AM
when taxes go up 3.5...utilities 8..insurance 10 percent with no caps on government or other government regulated industry no 2.5 doesnt cut it...especially when you consider your landlord share has not only shrank but there is no cap on food gas etc...a 2.5 cap would be fair if all expenses anyone pays was capped and assistance payments and wages were increased by 2.5
otherwise its an attack on landlords and renters with government and big business getting rich while we are squeezed
Posted by: bruce hodgson | Jun 29, 2021 10:40:48 AM
let me try again....if a landlords expenses arent capped and increase over 2.5 as they always do, the landlord gets less take home pay.. not no raise,not only one percent raise but less.and our gas and food and utilities and everything else goes up same as for everybody else.
government taxes and utilities and might as well say insurance companies get a bigger piece of the pie... working ppl those on assistance get a little less and landlords get way less
that is the truth
Posted by: Skeptic | Jun 30, 2021 9:40:16 PM
Canadian ways have always been suspect and farcical. Crooks such as Conrad Black get airtime on the tele because of their connections with the Britain and royalty. The mining industry resembles a ponzy scheme. There is not one Canadian corporation that can be called World Class. Before anyone says RIM, check their status. Salaried people are taxed at a high 26% to 30% if they earn reasonably well. Inn addition you pay another 13% for every service and commodity you purchase. The medical system is full of waiting times and pathetic postponements of critical surgeries.
If you are an immigrant and been here a few years; it does not take long to regret the decision to have set foot on this land. Only that having 'settled' here it gets harder to return to wherever one came from due to changed conditions and experiences. So one accepts reality of the farce being played out by big businesses and crooks in the political establishment and move on with a fatalistic mindset.
Posted by: Mr. Negative | Jul 3, 2021 2:35:27 PM
what is new? The rich and powerful get away with stuff! How do you think they manage to stay rich and powerful?
It is funny how much corruption is going on and posted on the news. Yet, story after story it keeps happening and the suspects continue to get away with it. The victims, us, get to pay for all of this in another fraudulent way!
Posted by: security companies ireland to protect you | Jul 3, 2021 3:23:20 PM
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