Vancouver businessman David Sidou is believed to be part of a business community that has defrauded investors of millions of dollars, according to a lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The appeal was filed with the District Court in the Southern District of New York in Thursdaynames Sido along with seven other defendants as part of a “pump and dump” scheme.
Regulators say the defendants bought shares in various companies, artificially raised their share prices and then sold the assets to unsuspecting investors, earning millions of dollars in the process.
The scheme began in 2006 and lasted until 2020, according to documents, and regulators say defendants have earned more than $ 145 million illegally.
The SEC is seeking tough regulatory action against all eight defendants, including injunctions barring them from further trade.
Sidou has no criminal record and the allegations have not been proven in court.
However, four of his co-defendants charges were brought of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering in a separate indictment.
This is another legal hurdle for Sidou, a former CFL player who was deprived of his order BC and closed after being embroiled in a US college college scandal in 2020.
Sidou, 62, is also a philanthropist, former CEO of mining company Advantage Lithium Corp. and co-founder of American Oil & Gas Inc., which sold in 2010 for more than $ 600 million.
According to the complaint, the “global” investor fraud scheme includes four of Sidoo’s accomplices, as well as six others accused as part of a separate FBI investigation.
“These disastrous” pumping and dumping “schemes have made the defendants rich, while doing real damage to ordinary retail investors who have been left to absorb the losses,” said US Attorney General Damien Williams in a statement declaring the FBI criminal charges.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
David Sidou in an interview with CBC News in 2011. He was stripped of the BC Order after his involvement in the college admissions scandal in 2020 (CBC)
17 companies allegedly “thrown out”
The main defendant in the SEC’s complaint is Ronald Bauer, a Canadian-British dual citizen who investigators say currently lives in the United Kingdom.
It is alleged that Bauer observed numerous acts of fraud using the “pump and dump” method, according to the complaint. Investigators say he and his co-defendants used a total of 17 companies as part of the scheme.
Regulators say the eight men bought controlling stakes in companies, using offshore companies to cover up their involvement.
They then allegedly used media campaigns to persuade other investors to buy shares in their companies without disclosing their ownership.
Investors did this by setting up “front companies” – front companies owned by them – and distributing their shares among those companies. For other investors, it seemed that no company owned all the shares, although this was the case.
Sidoo is said to have been involved in organizing the scheme using two companies, North American Oil & Gas Corp., and American Helium Inc.
The lawsuit alleges that Sidoo and other investors made more than $ 16 million by defrauding investors using companies.
Although Sidou has not been charged, four of his co-defendants, including Bauer, face up to 20 years in prison for each of the crimes they are accused of.
The FBI says many authorities around the world were involved in the investigation, including the RCMP, the Alberta Securities Commission and the Toronto Police Department.
David Sidou’s field on the UBC campus in Vancouver was renamed at Sidou’s request after his involvement in the college admissions scandal in 2020 (Ben Nelms / CBC)
Sidou played professional football for six years for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and BC Lions.
He was sentenced to three months in prison in 2020 after being discovered to have paid $ 200,000 to get a professional test writer to introduce himself to his two sons and write their SAT.
The sentence led to the loss of the Order of BC – which was awarded for his philanthropy – and the University of British Columbia renamed the football field that was originally named after him.
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