NSSC hands down $150,000 fine, permanent ban for trading scheme

Regulators in Nova Scotia have fined and permanently banned the perpetrators of a foreign exchange trading scheme.

A hearing panel of the Nova Scotia Securities Commission (NSSC) ordered that Jean-Smaille Germeil and his firm, FPE Trading, pay a $150,000 administrative penalty, $15,000 in costs and be permanently banned after finding that they violated securities rules.

Back in March, an NSSC panel ruled that Germeil and FPE Trading distributed securities without a prospectus, traded without registration and made misleading statements to investors in connection with a forex trading scheme that raised $37,500 from four investors, losing $26,700.

In its decision, the panel noted that while the amount of money lost was not large, the misconduct that led to the loss was serious, and that the money lost may have been significant to the investors.

Staff

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