ASC issues permanent ban over ‘particularly odious’ conduct

A convicted Ponzi schemer has been permanently banned by the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC).

The regulator ordered that Timothy Ray Carruthers, who was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to 22 counts of fraud over $5,000, also be banned by the ASC.

According to the commission’s decision, the fraud, which raised almost $5.3 million from 22 investors, used about $1.8 million to perpetuate the scheme, with most of the rest misappropriated for personal use.

The ASC panel said that it “found Carruthers’ conduct in relation to several investors particularly odious: he defrauded his daughter-in-law’s grandmother causing her to lose $150,000; he convinced a woman who cleaned his office building to invest her $20,000 inheritance; and he defrauded a family of $50,000 of life insurance proceeds from the death of their child.”

“This egregious conduct requires protective orders aimed at preventing Carruthers from engaging in similar behaviour in the future,” it said.

As a result, it ordered him to be permanently banned from trading, registration, engaging in investor relations and advising in securities.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.