SEC acts for victims of IFC fraud in Canada and US

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed an emergency action to curtail a fraudulent bank scheme believed to have raised at least $18.2 million from investors, most of them in British Columbia, Canada.

The SEC states that Daniel Byer, Malcolm Stevenson and Preston Pinkett II defrauded investors by promoting and selling investments in US-based International Fiduciary Corporation (IFC) to more than 180 people.

The current SEC action alleges that from July 2003 to the present, the defendants solicited a minimum $100,000 from investors in what was promised to be a risk-free programme with a monthly rate of return in 2006 of 6% a month, or 72% a year. These actions contravene parts of the 1933 Securities Act and the 1934 Securities Exchange Act.

In November, the British Columbia Securities Commission issued a temporary order and notice of hearing, ordering the defendants to cease trading the IFC investments to residents of British Columbia.