Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: justaninvestor who wrote (89309)	1/13/2005 10:47:55 PM
From: scion	Respond to of 122087

Mark Valentine, ex-Bay Street prodigy, banned and fined by OSC ontario news archives Thursday, Dec 23, 2004 Mark Valentine, ex-Bay Street prodigy, banned and fined by OSC TORONTO (CP) - Mark Valentine, once the whiz-kid boss of defunct brokerage Thomson Kernaghan, has been banned for life from being an officer or director of any Canadian company and must pay $100,000 in a settlement with regulators. Valentine was accused of creating a "culture of conflict and non-compliance" as chairman of Thomson Kernaghan and through his multiple roles at the brokerage and other firms. He was convicted of securities fraud in the United States earlier this year. The ban goes into effect immediately in Ontario, which has jurisdiction in the case, but Valentine agreed in the deal with the Ontario Securities Commission to face the same restriction across Canada. "This is possibly the most serious sanction the commission has ever meted out on a matter," Kelley McKinnon, the OSC enforcement lawyer who headed the case against Valentine. "Mr. Valentine can never be a director or officer of any issuer, which by definition includes any private holding company. That's significant. That's for life." While it will be up to the other Canadian regulators to decide whether to impose the same punishment in their territories, "we expect many, if not all of them, will put in place similar restrictions on Mr. Valentine." "So the scope of this, in that it could be nationwide, is unprecedented," McKinnon told reporters after a brief hearing before a panel of three OSC commissioners. Valentine also faces a total of 15 years of restrictions on his ability to trade shares - a five-year total ban, followed by 10 years in which he can only trade in his own accounts, subject to numerous conditions. Once the total ban on trading is relaxed, Valentine will be permitted to trade shares only on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. "The important point is that it's not trading at all on Nasdaq, which is where all of his improper conduct took place," McKinnon said. McKinnon agreed the $100,000 that Valentine will pay to the OSC is only a portion of the costs that the provincial regulator incurred in its investigation. "But the real sanctions here were designed to protect the public and those are the ones that are going to keep him out of the market," McKinnon added. Still in his early 30s, Valentine headed the Toronto brokerage of Thomson Kernaghan before its collapse in 2002 and spent two months in a Florida jail after being extradited from Germany to the United States on securities fraud charges. He pleaded guilty to one count in March and was sentenced in May to nine months of home confinement and four years' probation. Valentine, who attended the hearing Thursday, rushed out of the hearing room without saying anything. But he smiled as he stood in an elevator while his lawyer, Edward Greenspan, paused in the elevator doorway to speak with reporters. Asked what Valentine will do now, Greenspan said, "Everything is over in the States, everything is now concluded here. And he's going to take some time and reflect in terms of his future." Greenspan said Valentine will "be living in Toronto. Absolutely. It's his home." "As of last week, his house arrest custody in the United States is over. This is now over. Mark can now get on with his life," Greenspan said. "He's a very young man and he's got a long future ahead of him. And I'm sure he'll be very successful." McKinnon told reporters that it's possible for Valentine to go someplace that's not bound by the Ontario settlement, but noted that he faces restrictions in Canada and the United States. "If the other provinces take us up on the consent we negotiated, he won't be able to trade anywhere in Canada," she said. "The results of the U.S. proceeding have arguably shut him down entirely in the U.S," McKinnon said. "If he wants to move somewhere else in the world, then he may have some opportunities there." © The Canadian Press, 2004 mytelus.com