Market Manipulation - Yvan Guyon fined $40,000
Decisions and Freeze and cease trade orders Securities
Montréal - On November 17, 2011, Judge Louis A. Legault of the Court of Québec, district of Montréal, ordered Yvan Guyon to pay a fine of $40,000, eight times the minimum fine set out in the Securities Act for market manipulation.
In March 2010, Yvan Guyon was found guilty of influencing or attempting to influence the market price or value of the shares of Peterborough Capital Corporation (PEC) by unfair, improper or fraudulent practices between January 13 and 24, 2006. Yvan Guyon pleaded guilty to the charge, but contested the amount of the fine sought by the Autorité des marchés financiers("AMF").
In his oral judgment ordering Yvan Guyon to pay a fine of $40,000, Judge Legault acknowledged that, although Mr. Guyon lost a significant amount in the venture and did not appear to have the means to pay the fine sought by the AMF, this does not prevent the court from imposing a sentence that meets the objectives of denunciation and deterrence.
The Judge concluded that a significant fine should be imposed on Yvan Guyon, citing the following facts and aggravating factors: premeditation, clear and manifest intentions of the defendant with respect to his market manipulation objectives, the fact that a significant portion of the funds that he did manage to recover was the fruit of the losses incurred by his victims, namely the investors who purchased shares of PEC at an artificially inflated price, and his indifference to the warnings of the dealer involved in the transactions.
The Autorité des marchés financiers (the AMF) is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec's financial industry.
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