Former Notary Rashida Samji Slapped With $33 Million Fine For $100 Million Fraud Scheme
CBC News Posted: Jan 21, 2015 11:49 AM PT Last Updated: Jan 21, 2015 12:31 PM PT
Rashida Samji has been fined $33 million by a B.C. Securities Commission panel for committing $100 million fraud.
VANCOUVER – Former Notary Public Rashida Samji, who committed $100-million fraud involving at least 200 investors, has been fined $33 million and permanently banned from B.C.’s capital markets.
Samji, a prominent member of the local Ismaili-Canadian community, ran a massive Ponzi scheme, according to a release from the securities panel Wednesday.
She is also ordered to pay the commission $10.8 million, which is the amount determined to be owing to the defrauded investors.
“The magnitude and duration of the fraudulent investment scheme and the number of investors affected justify a significant penalty,” the decision says.
According to the panel, Samji told investors she would hold their money in trust, using it only to secure letters to help finance a B.C. winery, reported CBC news.
“Investors were to earn fees for securing the letters of credit. None of this was true,” stated the release.
Samji has already been charged with 28 counts of fraud and theft, relating to $17 million that was allegedly defrauded from 14 people.
Police have alleged there were at least 100 victims in what may be the largest Ponzi scheme uncovered in Canada.
The repayment is the difference between monies deposited by investors and the amounts they received. It is not known if she has the ability to pay the penalties.
Much of the money was lost, the regulator said, but at least $63-million was paid to investors over a decade in interest, using money from new investors to pay interest to old investors.
“The whole investment scheme was one big lie,” the BCSC said in its July ruling in the case. “There was no investment related to the wine business, nor any letters of comfort.”
In one of the biggest frauds in BC history, Samji promised returns of 12 per cent to 30 per cent a year for placing their money with her, which she said would be made available to the owners of Mission Hill Winery.
The Mark Anthony Group Inc., which owns the Mission Hill Family Estate winery in Kelowna, said it did not know its name was being used in the investment scheme and had no involvement in any financing deal. Regulators say this fraud scheme happened from 2006 through 2012.
Investors also filed a class-action lawsuit against Samji to try to recover their losses.
