News Release

Released: 03/21/01 Contact: Dean Pelkey
NR 01-09 (604) 899-6880 or
(BC only) 1-800-373-6393

Vancouver -- Nirbhia Singh Gill of Surrey committed fraud and breached the Securities Act in connection with an unregistered distribution of securities to two men, a British Columbia Securities Commission panel has found.

In a decision released today, the panel says Gill perpetrated a fraud on one of the individuals and made misrepresentations to him in connection with the distribution.

Gill was a salesperson with Investors Group Financial Services from 1990 until he left in early 1996. Gill re-established contact with two of his former clients later that same year. During the next two years, those two men gave Gill a total of $118,000. Gill deposited the money into accounts at Canaccord Capital and a personal account at a credit union. He used the money to pay debts and his personal expenses. Only $34,000 of that money has been paid back.

Gill said both men gave him the money as personal loans, an argument the Commission panel accepted with respect to one of the men. However, the Commission panel found that the other man had given money to Gill as an investment, not as a personal loan. The Commission panel also found that Gill made misrepresentations to this man about Gill’s financial situation and what Gill intended to do with the money and that Gill had perpetrated a fraud on him.

"We are of the view that both dishonesty and deprivation were present in Gill's transaction with Brown. We found earlier that this transaction involved the distribution of a security from Gill or Gill Financial [Gill's company] to Brown. Therefore, we find Gill perpetrated a fraud on Brown, contrary to section 57 of the Act," the panel said.

The Commission will hear further submissions before issuing orders.

The B.C. Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities and exchange contracts within the province. Copies of the decision can be viewed on the commission’s website www.bcsc.bc.ca or by contacting media relations officer Dean Pelkey at 899-6880. Backgrounder

Here is a list of the findings of the Commission panel. Text of the full decision can be found in the BCSC documents database atwww.bcsc.bc.ca.

1. Gill and Gill Financial distributed securities to two men without registration and without obtaining a receipt for a prospectus, contrary to sections 34(1) and 61(1) of the Act.

2. Gill perpetrated a fraud on one of these men, contrary to section 57 of the Act.

3. Gill made misrepresentations to one of these men with the intention of effecting a trade in a security, contrary to section 50(1)(d) of the Act.