ASC orders $5.6 million in penalties for Concrete Equities executives

CALGARY, Jan. 11, 2012 /CNW/ - The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) has imposed sanctions totalling $5.6 million on Varun Vinny Aurora, David Humeniuk, David Jones and Vincenzo De Palma for their roles in illegally distributing securities of the Concrete Equities group. An ASC panel also sanctioned Aurora, Humeniuk and Jones for making misleading and untrue statements in offering documents.

In its sanction decision, the ASC panel ordered that:

• Humeniuk pay an administrative penalty of $3.3 million and $22,000 towards the costs of the investigation and hearing;
• Humeniuk is permanently barred from trading in or purchasing securities, from using exemptions under Alberta securities laws, and from acting as a director or officer of any issuer;
• Jones pay an administrative penalty of $1.2 million and $22,000 in costs;
• Jones is permanently barred from trading in or purchasing securities, from using exemptions, and from acting as a director or officer of any issuer;
• De Palma pay an administrative penalty of $600,000 and $11,000 in costs;
• De Palma is barred from trading in or purchasing securities and using exemptions for nine years, and from acting as a director or officer of any issuer for five years;
• Aurora pay an administrative penalty of $500,000 and $11,000 in costs; and
• Aurora is barred from trading in or purchasing securities and from using exemptions for five years, and from acting as a director or officer of any issuer for nine years.

The panel found that: "Much harm resulted from all of this misconduct. Prospective investors were given materially misleading information, and denied the prospectus disclosure and registrant involvement (or appropriate substitutes under properly-used exemptions) to which they were entitled by law....We repeatedly heard - and we believed - testimony of individual investors distraught and traumatized by what they have endured as a result of their involvement with the Concrete Group."

A copy of the sanction decision has been posted to the ASC website at www.albertasecurities.com

The ASC is the regulatory agency responsible for administering the province's securities laws. It is entrusted to foster a fair and efficient capital market in Alberta and to protect investors.  As a member of the Canadian Securities Administrators, the ASC works to improve, coordinate and harmonize the regulation of Canada's capital markets.

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