A former Abbotsford man who was sentenced in 2011 and 2014 for his role in a Ponzi scheme has lost his bid to overturn a default order that he pay $9.5 million to the BC Securities Commission (BCSC).
The ruling was made Jan. 10 in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver and was posted online Thursday (Jan. 26).
The BCSC previously determined that Malcolm Stevenson and two others – Daniel Eric Byer of Abbotsford and Preston Pinkett II of Virginia – had defrauded investors through an investment vehicle called the International Fiduciary Corporation (IFC).
IFC operated from 2004 to 2006, and the BCSC determined that the Ponzi scheme took more than $23.3 million from 89 B.C. investors, who received returns of only $10.3 million.
The BCSC found that Stevenson had withdrawn at least $5.53 million from a pooled account through which the sham investment scheme was administered, court documents state.
In February 2008, the BCSC ordered that Stevenson pay the $5.53 million, plus a $1.5 million administrative penalty, as a result of his contraventions of the B.C. Securities Act.
Stevenson was charged in June 2007 with three counts of contravening the act. He was convicted in 2010, but his sentencing was put on hold after he disappeared and a Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest.
Stevenson was believed to be living outside of Canada and was arrested in March 2011 at Toronto Pearson International Airport. He was sentenced later that year to another five months in prison…
