Illegal Insider Trading - Dominic Côté pleads guilty - fined over $1.2M

Decisions and Freeze and cease trade orders Securities

Montréal – Dominic Côté recently pleaded guilty to illegal insider trading charges filed by the Autorité des marchés financiers (the “AMF”) and agreed to pay fines totalling $1,260,336.56.

Specifically, this former information technology manager and former employee at the law firm Ogilvy Renault pleaded guilty to the 14 charges filed by the AMF, namely, 13 charges for trading in securities based on privileged information and one charge for disclosing privileged information.

The AMF investigation revealed that, between October 2006 and February 2010, Dominic Côté traded in the securities of 13 listed companies while in possession of privileged information acquired through his IT administrator profile at the law firm. The fine that he has been ordered to pay is equivalent to double the profit realized through trading.

The AMF wishes to stress that Ogilvy Renault fully co-operated in the investigation and that the legal proceedings against Dominic Côté were in no way directed against the firm itself.

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

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