Hells Angels

According to court filings, Vasseur resided on Government Road when his summons was issued. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Canadian police arrested Vasseur, ...

The company is not named in any SEC documents, as the B.C. Securities Commission regulates it. Sharp is implicated as the central figure in over US$1 billion worth of illegal trading alleged by the SEC last August. Sharp allegedly coordinated numerous sub-networks or “control groups” to manipulate stocks in hundreds of U.S. public companies. Officials specifically allege Vasseur manipulated the stock of a Nevada shell company called Bing Nation Inc., which purported to be offering televised bingo games. Such laundering was frequently accomplished through the use of fabricated invoices, contracts and agreements,” noted the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Police found 11,152 cannabis plants, plus illicit equipment, surveillance cameras, workers and a currency counting machine. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also issued numerous civil fraud charges related to the alleged scheme on April 18. However, Justice Heather Holmes ruled there was reasonable doubt either man knew about the drugs. To complete the alleged scheme, the defendants "pumped" the stock by conducting trades between entities to artificially increase shares' trading volume and price. Vancouver was at least one base for promotions, according to officials. They also reportedly conducted promotional campaigns that frequently contained false and misleading claims about the companies. These pernicious ‘pump-and-dump’ schemes made the defendants rich while causing real harm to ordinary, retail investors who were left swallowing the losses,” wrote U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. According to court filings, Vasseur resided on Government Road when his summons was issued.

Courtney Vasseur was among 10 people the Department of Justice charged with fraud on April 14, as part of a crack down on an international stock manipulation ...

Together, they are thought to have made $145 million in illicit profits. Vasseur is accused of being directly involved in producing at least $35 million of the $100 million illegal total. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Collectively, the 10 defendants are believed to have made over $100 million by manipulating the stock market. As part of the same investigation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a complaint against a number of other alleged fraudsters, including Vancouver businessman and former CFL player David Sidoo. Although not facing criminal charges, Sidoo is accused of helping to orchestrate two stock fraud schemes, which together produced $16.68 million in illicit profits between 2013 and 2020. Vasseur and his alleged co-conspirators are each charged with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, committing securities and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Courtney Vasseur, a British Columbia Hells Angels member, and former Canadian Football League player David Sidoo are among 16 people accused of perpetrating ...

Most of the manipulated companies were based in Nevada, and traded on New York’s OTC Markets, a well-known penny stock trading platform. Have the Top Business Headlines newsletter conveniently delivered to your inbox in the morning or evening. The pair pocketed tens of millions in ill-gotten gains, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The accused worked in the shadows, U.S. authorities said, by using aliases, communicating using encrypted messages and stashing money in offshore accounts. U.S. authorities alleged the defendants amassed controlling positions in worthless shell companies, and used stock promoters to pump up the shares to artificially high levels. Your time is valuable. Mr. Sidoo “used offshore omnibus vehicles and front companies to conceal the fact that he was the beneficiary of stock sales, and failed both to disclose his beneficial ownership and trading and to register his stock sales as legally required,” the SEC alleged. The 62-year-old Mr. Sidoo once played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and B.C. Lions. In 2020, Mr. Sidoo was implicated in the U.S. college admissions scandal and sentenced to three months in a U.S. prison after admitting he paid someone to take the SATs for two of his two sons. Martin G. Weinberg, U.S. lawyer for Mr. Sidoo, said in a statement to The Globe and Mail that his client denies the allegations made by the SEC. However, one of the companies that was tampered with was based in Vancouver and traded on the TSX Venture Exchange, as well as OTC. While several provincial Canadian securities regulators and law enforcement agencies assisted in the investigation, no Canadian authorities brought charges. Mr. Lehner, known as Santa, and Mr. Vasseur allegedly set up the scams by gaining control of the shares of at least eight penny stock companies between 2016 and 2018, and overseeing misleading stock promotion campaigns. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York are alleging that the defendants, almost half of which are Canadian citizens, manipulated the share prices of scores of U.S. penny stock companies over a period of about 15 years.