ABC District and officers settle with ASC

CANADA  – On September 12, 2019, the Alberta Securities Commission reported that it has concluded a Settlement Agreement with the Alberta-British Columbia District and others regarding its former Church Extension Fund and District Investments Ltd. programs. The programs collapsed in early 2015.

“In the Settlement Agreement, the parties admitted to breaching Alberta securities laws by making statements which they knew or ought to have known did not state all of the facts required,” reports the ASC. “They acknowledged that certain information, which was not disclosed to investors, would reasonably be expected to have a significant effect on the market price or value of the investments. Investors were not told, for example, that most of their money was concentrated in loans to a proposed land development project that defaulted on principal payments for three years in a row, did not produce financial statements, had inadequate financial controls in place, and had insufficient assets to secure the loans. As a result, there was significantly higher risk of losing their money than investors were told when they made their investments.”

The ASC further reports that the individual respondents Rev. Donald Schieman, Kurtis Robinson, James Kentel, Rev. Mark Ruf, and Harold Schmidt agreed to pay a total of $500,000 to the CCAA Monitor for distribution to investors according to the Court’s direction.

An additional $100,000 is to be paid to the ASC to cover investigation and litigation costs. The ASC notes that “no settlement funds were paid by the corporate respondents, thus ensuring that any eligible corporate assets remain available for investor recovery through the CCAA proceedings.”

The Settlement Agreement is available online at the ASC’s website here.

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