The British Columbia Securities Commission.Laura Leyshon/The Globe and Mail
A Surrey, B.C., man was sentenced to more than two years in prison after an investigation by the British Columbia Securities Commission revealed his fraudulent activity.
Roberto Castano became known to the BCSC in 2009 through a tip from a financial institution. The institution alleged that money Mr. Castano had raised through his company, Skyline Communications, was being invested in the stock market through a brokerage account.
An investigation was then launched by the BCSC, which found that Mr. Castano was misappropriating funds from clients through a Ponzi scheme.
The BCSC said Mr. Castano issued promissory notes, and told investors he would use the money to trade on the stock market and earn them a 5-per-cent return each month. But some of the money he took in from investors was being used to make interest and other payments back to investors. Mr. Castano also used some funds for personal expenses, the commission said in a statement Thursday. Charges of theft and fraud were approved by the Crown in 2012, and earlier this year, Mr. Castano pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000 against eight victims. This week, the B.C. Supreme Court ordered Mr. Castano to pay a total of about $1.5-million to seven of the investor victims. It also sentenced him to 27 months in prison.
Peter Brady, director of enforcement at BCSC, said the organization is "almost constantly" investigating Ponzi schemes, and the complexity of the cases means the investigations typically take a long time.