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News Release

Securities Commission Fines Pinchin and Bans Him for 25 Years

  • Date:

    1996-10-18

  • Number:

    96/30

Released: October 16, 1996 Contact: Ron Messent
660-4800 or (BC only) 1-800-373-6393

The British Columbia Securities Commission has imposed a fine of $50,000 and a twenty-five-year prohibition from trading securities and from being a director or officer of a company on Timothy J. Pinchin for his conduct in a fraudulent scheme related to trading in the shares of two companies formerly listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. Pinchin has also been ordered to pay the costs of the Commission hearing.

The orders follow a Commission hearing held in September and November 1995.

The Commission found that Pinchin implemented a scheme to obtain control of two VSE listed companies, Consolidated Brightwork Resources Inc. and Keywest Resources Ltd., that perpetrated a fraud on investors in those companies. In connection with his scheme, Pinchin:

  • acquired control of Brightwork and Keywest, but failed to file the required disclosure and to obtain the necessary Exchange approvals;
  • as a control person of each company, distributed shares without a prospectus;
  • failed to file insider reports in respect of the companies;
  • caused the companies to fail to disclose, and to make false and misleading disclosure of, material changes in their affairs;
  • was responsible for the issuance of a false and misleading information circular in respect of Keywest;
  • traded on the basis of undisclosed material information about the companies;
  • created large debit positions in his brokerage accounts, which he attempted to settle with NSF cheques;
  • engaged in transactions and schemes that created a misleading appearance of trading activity in and an artificial price for the shares of the companies; and
  • breached his Company Act duties as a director and senior officer of the companies.

He also contravened Commission orders that prohibited him from trading and acted as an unregistered adviser.

The Commission said:
"Pinchin's conduct represented an abuse of the capital market and was extremely prejudicial to the public interest. His fraudulent scheme violated almost every basic tenet of a fair and efficient market and caused incalculable damage, both to investors in Brightwork and Keywest and to investor confidence in the market."
The British Columbia Securities Commission is a provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities and exchange contracts.

Copies of the Commission's decision (38 pages) may be obtained in person at 1100 - 865 Hornby Street, Vancouver, British Columbia.