Dive Brief:

• The British Columbia Securities Commission suspended the former CEO and CEO of a Vancouver, Canada-based company now being dissolved called BLOK from participating in the investment market, according to a release Monday.

• Robert Earle Dawson, the ex-CEO of BLOK Technologies, and David Malcolm Alexander, the ex-CFO, agreed to the suspension, which follows after the pair authorized a June 2018 news release that stated BLOK had raised $5.4 million which would be used for the company’s blockchain projects. However, they did not disclose that they would only use $947,321 of the money to do so, as they already spent or owed $4.5 million in consulting fees, according to the BCSC release.

• “Both individuals must resign any position they hold as a director or officer of an issuer or registrant, and are temporarily prohibited from becoming or acting as a director or officer of any reporting issuer or registrant, becoming or acting as a registrant or promoter, and advising or otherwise acting in a management or consultative capacity in connection with the securities or derivatives market,” the release states.

Dive Insight:

As part of the settlement, Alexander, whose prohibitions are for three years, will pay $25,000 to the BSCS. Dawson, whose prohibitions are for 14 years, isn’t able to pay a financial sanction, according to the release.

BLOK was one of a number of companies and consultants that were previously cited in a larger matter known as the Bridgmark Group case involving consulting firms. A BCSC executive director alleged they raised “over $50 million in private placement proceeds from the consultants only to return much of the money back to the consulting firms as consulting fees, according to a Monday North Shore News report.  

In 2018 the BSCS temporarily barred the group of “purported consultants” from buying and selling shares in 11 publicly traded cannabis, energy, mining and crypto-currency companies following an investigation, according to a Nov. 26, 2018 Financial Post report.