News Release

Released: 08/22/01 Contact: Andrew Poon
NR 01-35 (604) 899-6880 or
(BC only) 1-800-373-6393

Vancouver -- The BC Securities Commission has rejected a Burnaby-based securities dealer's application to suspend restrictions on its trading and advising activities imposed after commission staff found the firm repeatedly failed to put in place an adequate compliance program.

Foresight Capital Corporation, a securities dealer headquartered in Burnaby with branches throughout the province, has been partially restricted in its business activities since Aug. 1, 2001 after commission staff imposed conditions on its registration. (Most of the restrictions were deferred until after this decision on the company's stay application.)

The restrictions, now fully in place, include:
· The company and its salespeople are barred from trading or advising clients in limited partnership units and most other types of securities sold under exemptions from registration and prospectus requirements.
· Company president Gilbert Wong must no longer act as a compliance officer or branch manager.
· The company is prohibited from employing salespeople requiring strict supervision.

Gerry Halischuk, BCSC's director of capital markets regulation, imposed the conditions on Foresight Capital after commission staff found significant compliance deficiencies in three examinations of the firm since it started business in 1997.

Foresight Capital has asked the commission to review the director's decision and wanted the restrictions suspended pending a hearing. However, the commission decided that Foresight Capital has not satisfied the test it must meet to have a regulatory decision stayed before a hearing.

"Foresight has chosen to carry on business in the regulated field of securities trading. It must accept that its conduct is subject to regulatory scrutiny and that it may find its activities curtailed by regulatory intervention," said the commission.

"It is, of course, entitled to have the Director’s decision reviewed but, to obtain a stay, it must show something more than mere inconvenience or disruption of its business. It has not done so and we therefore find that the balance of convenience favours leaving the decision in place."

A date for the full hearing has not been set.

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 in the documents database of the commission’s website www.bcsc.bc.ca or by contacting Media Relations Officer Andrew Poon at 899-6880.