ASC sanctions, fines Alberta man

The Alberta Securities Commission has fined and sanctioned Edmonton-based Lorne Drever and the two companies he manages, Locate Technologies and 706166 Alberta Co., for violating Alberta securities laws.

An ASC panel ordered Locate Technologies, 706166 Alberta Co. and Drever to pay a $300,000 administrative penalty and $20,000 in costs. The panel also permanently banned:

• Locate Technologies, 706166 Alberta Co. and Drever from trading in any securities;
• Locate Technologies and 706166 Alberta Co. from using Alberta securities laws exemptions; and
• Drever from acting as a director or officer or director of any issuer.

Drever and his companies were subject to a 2008 ASC cease trade order. However, he authorized or permitted Locate Technologies to sell shares to Alberta investors in 2010, and met with those investors to solicit further investment. His actions were an illegal breach of the order.

The panel also found Locate Technologies and Drever made prohibited representations to the investors, such as stating that Locate Technologies shares would soon be listed on an exchange in the U.S.

Drever also authorized or permitted the filing of draft prospectuses with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for distributions of Locate Technologies shares without filing a corresponding prospectus with the ASC.

The ASC describes the violations as indicating “sheer defiance of the law and securities regulatory authority. We discern on the part of Locate and Drever a profound contempt for our securities regulatory system and the basic investor-protection and market-confidence objectives.”

The ASC determined Drever and the two companies posed “a grave and persistent threat to Alberta investors and the capital market, unless tightly constrained by rigorous and permanent sanctions.”

Read the decision.

Staff

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