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Securities Commission Releases Decision On Paul Stenner Misappropriations

  • Date:

    1998-01-23

  • Number:

    98/02

Released: January 20, 1998  Contact: Barbara Barry  889-6500 or (BC only) 1-800-373-6393

The British Columbia Securities Commission has imposed a $60,000 fine and a 30 year ban from securities trading and from being a director or officer on Paul Anthony Stenner, a former registered mutual fund salesperson, for defrauding six clients of $555,000 between late 1995 and early 1997.

In a separate criminal proceeding for the same conduct, Stenner pleaded guilty in October 1997 to six counts of fraud. He was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $535,000.

Paul Stenner operated as a mutual fund salesperson and a life insurance agent from an office in Abbotsford. During the period when most of the frauds occurred, he held a life insurance license through the Manufactures Life Insurance Company and was registered as a mutual fund salesperson employed by Manulife Securities International Ltd. He accepted substantial sums of money from clients for investment in securities and insurance products but, instead, misappropriated them for his own use.

The Commission concluded:

Stenner’s conduct in this matter was despicable. He stole substantial sums totalling $555,000 from clients who came to him for advice on their investments. In some cases he took the life savings of elderly clients. In one case he borrowed $5,000 from a client, which is an inappropriate practice for a registrant, and then repaid the client $8,000 within a few months. The payment of this exorbitant return to the client helped Stenner win the client’s confidence and allowed Stenner to obtain $20,000 from the client, which Stenner then converted to his own use.

Stenner utterly abused his position as a registrant and the trust his clients placed in him. As a result, he is now in jail and has been ordered to pay $535,000 in restitution. The clients, many of them elderly, have lost substantial sums that they thought were invested safely. Stenner must not be permitted to prey on the investing public again.
The British Columbia Securities Commission is a provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities and exchange contracts.

Copies of the Commission decision (8 pages) may be obtained in person at 200 - 865 Hornby Street, Vancouver, British Columbia.