Thalbinder Singh Poonian and Shailu Poonian owe the BC Securities and Exchange Commission a total of $19 million for market manipulation that a commission panel found they committed. The total includes $13.5 million in administrative penalties and $5.5 million in “disgorgement of their ill-gotten gains,” according to a BCSC statement. In November, the BC Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by the couple in which they argued that the master who handled their bankruptcy discharge application had erred in several ways when he decided not to discharge them of the BCSC debt. This appeal was dismissed, with the trio of appellants agreeing that “there is no merit to any of the grounds of appeal identified by the appellants”. The couple made their most recent appeal against an order by the BC Supreme Court that BCSC’s debts could not be discharged through bankruptcy proceedings. In a ruling issued earlier this month, the appeals court again rejected the couple’s arguments. This time, the Poonians argued that the superior court judge had erred in relying on an Alberta court decision that was later overturned by that province’s appeals court. While the BC appeals judges found that the superior court judge had erred on this point, they concluded that the lower court’s decision was still correct. The couple’s debts “arise from obtaining property or services under false pretenses or fraudulent misrepresentation” and are therefore valid exceptions to the list of debts dischargeable through bankruptcy, the appeals judges wrote in their ruling. The BCSC sanctioned the Poonians in 2015 for manipulating the share price of OSE Corp., an Ontario company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. The market manipulation occurred between 2007 and 2009. “The committee concluded that the Poonians inflated the stock price through transactions between themselves, relatives, friends and acquaintances and then illegally obtained approximately $7 million by selling OSE shares to unsuspecting buyers,” BCSC said in its statement. So far, the Poonians have not paid any part of the $19 million owed to BCSC. Any portion of the $5.5 million divestment that is recovered will be returned to investors, the Commission said.
