Article: Market Manipulation: Alberta Securities Commission clamps down on pump and dump scheme

Article - Media, Publications

Market Manipulation: Alberta Securities Commission clamps down on pump and dump scheme

Lawrence E. Ritchie, Tristram Mallett, Devon Luca, 23 March 2021

The Alberta Securities Commission (the “ASC”) recently issued its reasons in Re Kilimanjaro Capital Ltd., 2021 ABASC 14 (the “Decision”). The ASC concluded the control person of Kilimanjaro Capital Ltd. (“Kilimanjaro”), Ashmit Patel, engaged in, among other things, market manipulating conduct intended artificially to inflate Kilimanjaro’s share price so that he could profit.

The Decision highlights the extensive cross-border cooperation between the United States Security and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and Canadian Securities Administrators (“CSAs”). The Decision also strengthens the existing legal framework relating to misleading promotional materials. As we have written previously, regulators are grappling with how to regulate an evolving market in which information posted on social media can significantly influence market valuations. The Decision lays useful groundwork that can be used to regulate legitimate trading practices used for improper purposes.

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Article: Meme stocks loom large in the CSA’s short-selling review

Article - Media, Publications

Meme stocks loom large in the CSA’s short-selling review

James Langton, 22 March 2021

When a group of retail traders used Reddit to gleefully gang up on a handful of hedge funds in January, giving birth to the concept of “meme” stocks, they cranked up an already simmering debate about proper public discourse related to trading. In Canada, a consultation regarding activist short-sellers is the focus of that debate.

Late last year, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published a consultation paper on the role and regulation of activist short-sellers — traders who publicly air their negative views on the stocks they’re shorting.

Defenders of the practice maintain that vocal short-sellers are the only thing standing between unrelenting upside hype and ordinary investors — i.e., their skepticism and scrutiny help expose corporate fraud and misconduct, aiding naive regulators and investors alike. Continue reading “Article: Meme stocks loom large in the CSA’s short-selling review”

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