August 18, 2017 Securities Decisions and Freeze and cease trade orders

Montréal – On March 3, 2017, Judge Claude Leblond of the Court of Québec, district of Montréal, imposed fines totalling $1,314,000 on François SimardNOTE for failures to comply with the Securities Act.

This decision is further to a penal proceeding launched in 2013 by the Autorité des marchés financiers (the "AMF") against François Simard, Stéphane Valois and Monique Langelier. Judge Leblond found François Simard guilty of 89 charges brought against him by the AMF, namely, 87 counts for aiding with making distributions without a prospectus and two counts for hindering AMF investigators in the exercise of their functions. Judge Leblond fined François Simard $15,000 per charge of distribution without a prospectus and $6,000 and $3,000 for the charges of hindering the work of investigators, for a total of $1,314,000.

In the same matter, Stéphane Valois was fined a total of $100,000 after pleading guilty to 14 of the 15 charges brought against him by the AMF, whereas Monique Langelier was acquitted of the three charges filed against her.

The Autorité des marchés financiers (the "AMF") is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec's financial sector.

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Additional news

• April 17, 2013 AMF files 109 charges and seeks over $1 million in fines against three individuals