U.S. authorities freeze assets of Fred Sharp
Five years after he was named as a major Canadian player in
the "Panama Papers" offshore finance scandal, a former West Vancouver
lawyer is now facing prosecution in the United States and has had his financial
assets frozen by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Fred Sharp, who nicknamed himself "Bond" after the
film spy, according to court filings, is one of six British Columbians charged
by the regulator with "violating anti-fraud provisions" of the U.S.
Securities Act.
Sharp and two of his fellow B.C. defendants are also facing conspiracy
and securities fraud charges by the U.S. Justice Department.
"Sharp masterminded ... long-running fraudulent schemes
that collectively generated hundreds of millions of dollars from unlawful stock
sales" between 2011 and 2018, the SEC said on Aug. 12.
Also facing SEC charges are six of Sharp's alleged
"associates": Zhiying Gasarch of Richmond, B.C.; Surrey resident
Courtney Kelln; North Vancouver's Mike Veldhuis; Jackson Friesen of Delta; Paul
Sexton of Anmore, B.C.; and Avtar Singh Dhillon, a Canadian living in
California.
The U.S. stock market regulator alleges the co-accused
"frequently collaborated with Sharp to dump huge stock positions while
hiding their control positions."
The SEC's move comes after the U.S. Justice Department
criminally charged Sharp with securities fraud and conspiracy on Aug. 5 —
charges also faced by fellow British Columbians Veldhuis and Kelln.
None of the criminal or securities charges have been proven
in court.
"Sharp and his co-conspirators are accused of executing
a sophisticated, global con that allegedly bilked unsuspecting investors out of
tens of millions of dollars," said Joseph Bonavolonta, the FBI Boston's
special agent in charge, who helped lead the criminal investigation. "We
will do everything we can to hold accountable those who steal from American
investors."
In 2016, CBC News was one of only two news outlets in Canada
with complete access to all of the financial documents leaked from the
Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, part of a massive international
investigative journalism collaboration known as the "Panama Papers."
Sharp's company, Corporate House, was known as the go-to
investment firm for wealthy Canadians who wanted to keep assets private and use
offshore tax havens to minimize their tax burden, according to sources in the
wealth management industry, CBC News learned.
He created more than 1,200 corporate entities linked to
Canada, making him the most significant Canadian player in the Panama Papers
trove. According to documents obtained by CBC News at the time, the
Sharp-associated companies were instructed not to send any account statements
or invoices by mail, email or fax, but to destroy them.
"Printed invoices or statement of accts [sic] should be
destroyed," the instructions stated.
At the time of the Panama Papers release, Sharp told CBC
News in an email, "Tax planning is a global reality that results from
international competition and inefficient governmental regulation ... and is legal."
A "pump-and-dump" investment scheme is one in which
companies' stock prices are artificially inflated, allowing some shareholders
to sell their stock at artificially high prices to other investors, according
to the FBI.
Sharp "used the code name 'Bond' (styling himself after
the fictional character James Bond)," the Securities and Exchange
Commission said in court documents, and "was the mastermind and
leader" of a company whose clients included "individuals seeking
fraudulently to sell stock in the markets to retail investors — and with
various offshore trading platforms."
Another James Bond connection appeared in Sharp's company
accounting system, which the SEC said he named after fictional senior spy
"Q" in the Bond franchise. The role of "Q," according to
the court filings, was "to conceal and obscure the actual ownership and
control of the stock they were surreptitiously selling."
Sharp is a former Vancouver lawyer who was suspended in 1995
by the Law Society of British Columbia, which ruled he "knowingly took
instructions from a person who was ... disqualified from acting as an officer
or director of a public company because of a criminal record for fraud,"
and for delivering a client's nearly $500,000 cheque "knowing that [the
client] had no funds in its bank account available."
In one Sharp correspondence quoted in the SEC's court
documents, his company's services were "not limited to trading" but
also included payments, loans and "keeping clients out of jail."
If convicted of securities fraud, Sharp could face up to 20
years in prison, plus five years for the conspiracy charges, according to the
U.S. Justice Department.
Comments
Post a Comment