Legal experts hope first remediation agreement under Criminal Code will lead to more

Nearly four years after the federal government added deferred prosecution agreements to the Criminal Code as part of its arsenal to fight corruption and other white-collar crime, legal experts hope that guidance provided by Quebec Superior Court in Canada’s first ever remediation agreement will prompt federal prosecutors and organizations to take advantage of the new way of settling criminal charges.

The comprehensive, meticulous and “important” decision introduces a “welcome” degree of certainty to the new process in the absence of accompanying regulations, guidelines or policies in the remediation agreement regime, according to legal experts. The ruling by Quebec Superior Court Justice Éric Downs sheds light on how remediation agreements will be broached by the courts, indicating that while they will not act as a “rubber stamp” in reviewing proposed settlements, the agreements will be afforded a high degree of deference, added the experts. The judgment also signals that self-reporting, though not a “hard condition,” will carry considerable weight as does “strong cooperation” to help sway the courts to sanction the agreement, they added.

“It’s an important decision because there were question marks around how the courts would approach the approval of a remediation agreement and how involved they would be in the process,” noted Louis-Martin O’Neill, a Montreal M&A and securities litigator with Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP. “The Court was very mindful of the fact that there is a huge need for stability in the system, and that implies that when a corporation starts to negotiate with the prosecution for a remediation agreement it has to know that unless something very grave happens, that agreement should stick when presented to the court.”

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Quebec court applies Jordan ceilings to white collar crime

A Quebec man accused of tax evasion by provincial tax authorities won an “important” legal battle after the Court of Quebec applied the landmark Jordan ruling and ordered a stay of proceedings and charges.

The decision affirms that the principles set out by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Jordan, 2016 SCC 27, [2016] 1 applies to white collar crimes, clarifies the notion of “complexity of the case,” underlines that the prosecution must analyze the evidence and develop a “concrete management and trial plan” before laying charges, and it may even prompt Revenu Quebec to review its procedures, according to tax lawyers. The ruling also suggests that the Covid-19 pandemic is not in itself sufficient grounds to justify delay, without examining other factors.

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U.S. SEC obtains another order to freeze assets of alleged PlexCorps founder

The noose is tightening around Dominic Lacroix, a Quebec City businessman believed by Quebec’s financial watchdog and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to be behind PlexCorps, a controversial cryptocurrency start-up accused of fraudulently selling millions of dollars’ worth of digital assets.

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Alleged PlexCorps founder ordered to hand bitcoins to Quebec financial watchdog

A Quebec City businessman believed by Quebec’s financial watchdog and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to be behind PlexCorps, a controversial cryptocurrency start-up accused of fraudulently selling up to millions of dollars’ worth of tokens, has been ordered to hand all bitcoins in his possession within 48 hours, ruled the Quebec Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal.

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Suspected PlexCoin founder sentenced to two months in prison

Dominic Lacroix, a Quebec City businessman believed by Quebec’s financial watchdog and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to be behind PlexCorps, a controversial cryptocurrency start-up accused of fraudulently selling up to $15 million of tokens, was sentenced to two-month jail term and fined $10,000 for contempt of court.

“The defendants fully understood the orders but intentionally and voluntarily disrgarded them,” said Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc Lesage in a 15-page ruling dated December 8th. “The Court finds that this is a case of exteme case of contempt and bad faith by the defendants.”

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PlexCoin still under scrutiny by Quebec financial regulator

Quebec’s financial watchdog is putting the squeeze on Dominic Lacroix.

He is a Quebec City resident who is thought to be behind an initial coin offering, PlexCoin, that is set to launch on Friday, October 13th.

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is working hard to prevent that from happening, and is ramping up the pressure.

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Quebec financial watchdog raids offices of man prohibited from promoting PlexCoin

The Quebec financial watchdog raided last week the offices of Dominic Lacroix, a Quebec City man who has been prohibited by a tribunal to promote and solicit investors for a new virtual currency called PlexCoin.

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Desjardins Financial Security Services fined $200,000 by regulator

Desjardins Financial Security Services Inc. has been fined $200,000 and costs of $25,000 following a settlement agreement reached with the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada over its failure to conduct a reasonable supervisory investigation on one of its former representatives who misappropriated $3.7 million from several clients.

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