Milowe Allen Brost, left, and Gary Allen Sorenson
Three Calgary men and their companies have been ordered to pay nearly $54-million in sanctions by the Alberta Securities Commission for bilking investors in "a systemic massive fraud."
In a decision released Friday, an ASC panel handed down the sanctions against Dennis Morice, Milowe Brost, Gary Sorenson and their companies, The Institute for Financial Learning Group of Cos. Inc. and Merendon Mining Corp. Ltd.
An ASC panel in April previously found that they had orchestrated a $46-million fraud.
In addition to the large monetary penalties, Friday's order also permanently bans the three men from trading or purchasing securities, advising others on securities or acting as a director or officer of an issuer.
In April, the Alberta regulator said that the group had "perpetrated a deliberately complex, co-ordinated, far-reaching and massive – almost $46-million – fraudulent investment scheme."
Mr. Brost and Mr. Sorenson have also faced investigations and charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the RCMP in connection with other alleged frauds.
The SEC won an order in 2010 ordering the two men to pay more than $310-million (U.S.).
Mr. Brost and Mr. Sorenson also face criminal charges of fraud, theft, possession of stolen property and money-laundering in connection with their alleged Ponzi investment scheme. A preliminary hearing in the case got under way earlier this month in a Calgary courtroom.