A Canadian convicted of fraud who fled the country to evade a four-year prison sentence has been arrested and repatriated.
William Wallace, one of two men who raised $6.8-million by fraudulently selling shares in Londoni Gold Corp., was arrested in February upon his arrival in the United Arab Emirates, according to the Ontario Securities Commission. He has been remanded to prison to begin serving his sentence, the OSC said Tuesday.
Mr. Wallace and his partner, Robert Heward, were convicted on Dec. 15, 2016, for fraud, unregistered trading and an illegal distribution under the Ontario Securities Act in an Ontario court, where jail terms can be handed out.
Justice Malcolm McLeod of the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto sentenced them both to four years in prison for fraud and 18 months for illegal distribution and unregistered trading in securities. Justice McLeod ordered the 18-month sentence and fraud sentence to be served concurrently. He also ordered them to pay restitution to their victims.
The OSC alleged that Mr. Wallace and Mr. Heward raised money from 105 investors between 2009 and 2013 as part of a scheme to sell shares of Londoni Gold, which they touted as having gold-mining licences in Tanzania. The regulator said the men misled investors about the operations, management team, viability and production potential of the mine.
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Neither of the men were registered to trade securities in Ontario. Londoni never made any regulatory filings, and its securities were not qualified for sale by a prospectus.
An investigation by the Joint Serious Offences Team (JSOT) – a partnership between the OSC, the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police – found that the majority of the money raised was used to support the fraudsters’ lavish lifestyles, the OSC said in a news release.
Both men fled the country in August, 2016, before the end of their trial, and were convicted and sentenced in absentia.
Mr. Heward returned voluntarily to Canada in February, 2017, and went to prison. He died shortly after.
After the court issued a warrant for Mr. Wallace’s arrest, the OSC obtained an Interpol red notice to alert police agencies around the world that he was wanted in Canada.
“We make every effort to hold people like Mr. Wallace accountable for victimizing Ontario investors,” said Jeff Kehoe, director of enforcement at the OSC, in a statement. “This includes drawing on our network of law enforcement agencies to track down offenders and return them to Canada to face justice.”
Since its inception, the JSOT has pursued 44 cases involving 62 accused individuals.
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Alexandra Posadzki