July 13, 2016 Money-Services Businesses

Montréal - The Autorité des marchés financiers (the "AMF") has launched a penal proceeding in the judicial district of Montréal against Albert Sleiman, Ghassan Hayek and five companies operating under the names Station et dépanneur Mia inc., Marché Talbot9286-3653 Québec inc. , Marché Marie-Lyne9215-1984 Québec inc. , Dépanneur M.N.R.9189-9203 Québec inc. and Dépanneur Laurion9127-6451 Québec inc.

The proceeding includes 11 charges related to providing false information to the AMF. More specifically, Albert Sleiman and Ghassan Hayek face five charges and one charge respectively for helping provide false or misleading information, while each company faces one charge for providing false or misleading information. The accused face minimum fines of $25,000 for Albert Sleiman, $5,000 for Ghassan Hayek and $15,000 for each company.

The AMF's investigation demonstrated that the companies provided this information in their application for a money-services business licence, more specifically in connection with the operation of automated teller machines, by identifying Albert Sleiman as the employee responsible for supplying and managing the automated teller machines in question when, in fact, this was not the case.

The AMF is currently studying the impact of these charges on the money-services business licences granted in fall 2015 to the companies referred to.

When completing a licence application, applicants must disclose to the AMF the name of all the persons involved in supplying and managing a money-services business and not solely the name of the business owner.

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

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Information:

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