CALGARY – The Alberta Securities Commission has ordered a total of $5.6 million in penalties for four executives of Calgary-based Concrete Equities Group for illegally distributing securities and for making misleading and untrue statements.
Varun Vinny Aurora, David Humeniuk, David Jones and Vincenzo De Palma were sanctioned by the province’s securities commission for their roles in illegally distributing securities of the Concrete Equities group.
“Much harm resulted from all of this misconduct,” the Alberta Securities Commission said in its decision released on Wednesday.
“Prospective investors were given materially misleading information, and denied the prospectus disclosure and registrant involvement (or appropriate substitutes under properly-used exemptions) to which they were entitled by law,” the decision said.
“We repeatedly heard – and we believed – testimony of individual investors distraught and traumatized by what they have endured as a result of their involvement with the Concrete Group.”
Investors lost more than $100 million as a result of buying Concrete Equities’ real-estate based investment products from February 2006 until May 2009. The company was put into receivership in 2009.
Humeniuk has been permanently barred from trading in or purchasing securities, from using exemptions under Alberta securities laws, and from acting as a director or officer of any issuer. The Alberta Securities Commission also ordered Humeniuk to pay an administrative penalty of $3.3 million and $22,000 towards the costs of the investigation and hearing.
Jones has been permanently barred from trading in or purchasing securities, from using exemptions, and from acting as a director or officer of any issuer. He has been ordered to pay an administrative penalty of $1.2 million and $22,000 in costs.
De Palma has been barred from trading in or purchasing securities and using exemptions for nine years, and from acting as a director or officer of any issuer for five years. He must pay an administrative penalty of $600,000 and $11,000 in costs.
Aurora has been barred from trading in or purchasing securities and from using exemptions for five years, and from acting as a director or officer of any issuer for nine years. He must also pay an administrative penalty of $500,000 and $11,000 in costs.
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