Good reading from the OSC's site. Taken from a January 06 hearing in which the Commission cites a key precedent:
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"The principles that guide the Commission in exercising its public interest jurisdiction are reflected in Mithras Management Ltd. (1990), 13 O.S.C.B. 1600 at pp. 1610-1611:
… the role of this Commission is to protect the public interest by removing from the capital markets – wholly or partially, permanently or temporarily, as the circumstances may warrant – those whose conduct in the past leads us to conclude that their conduct in the future may well be detrimental to the integrity of those capital markets. We are not here to punish past conduct; that is the role of the courts, particularly under section 118 of the Act. We are here to restrain, as best we can, future conduct that is likely to be prejudicial to the public interest in having capital markets that are both fair and efficient. In so doing we must, of necessity, look to past conduct as a guide to what we believe a person’s future conduct might reasonably be expected to be; we are not prescient, after all.
[10] When we determine appropriate sanctions the following fundamental factors should be considered:
(i) investor protection as set out in section 1.1(a) of the Act;
(ii) fostering fair and efficient capital markets as set out in section 1.1(b) of the Act;
(iii) maintaining high standards of business conduct as set out in s. 2.1 clause 2(iii) of the Act;
(iv) the protective and preventative mandate of the Commission under the Act; and
(v) the objectives of specific and general deterrence.
[11] Further, sanctions should be determined by taking into account the specific circumstances of each case."
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Now it will be interesting to learn the specifics of the letter PV/SLJB received and to see if the OSC is working with the SEC on this issue. The last cease trade orders were updated on December 22 and today is a huge holiday here in Canada. Hopefully we will get some info specific to this matter before Friday, if the OSC gets around to updating its site during this truncated work week. The OSC has worked in conjunction with the SEC (quite recently in fact) on the Research In Motion insider issues.
I bet the tenor of that letter is not very "positive." The good news is that apparently the OSC has the power to disgorge ill gotten gains. If it turns out that the OSC rules the 12 million in proceeds from the stock sales were not legitimately obtained, maybe there will be hope of a shareholder recovery here. If I had lost money I would be busy speaking with a lawyer right now rather than hoping new suckers can drive this up to the teens again.
ALL JMHO.
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