Former trader gets 15-year ban from OSC

A former institutional trader has been fined and banned for 15 years by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) after the regulator found that he engaged in illegal insider trading.

An OSC hearing panel has ordered that former trader Cameron Cornish must pay a $300,000 penalty, $128,000 in disgorgement and $47,500 in costs, in addition to the 15-year ban.

The sanctions follow a decision last October, which upheld two insider trading allegations against Cornish.

The panel found that Cornish traded on advance knowledge of a couple of pending merger transactions based on information that was passed along to him by a friend who was a legal assistant at a Bay Street law firm, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP.

The legal assistant, Donna Hutchinson, settled with the OSC in 2018. She agreed to a two-year ban.

“Cornish’s misconduct was serious. It was deliberate and it showed complete disregard for the interests of other investors in the capital markets,” the panel said in its ruling on sanctions.

The disgorgement represented his illegal trading profits and the penalty was set at approximately 2.35 times his profits, the panel noted.

Cornish did not participate in the regulatory proceedings.

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.