Former investment dealer hit with record fine in B.C. fraud

Former investment dealer hit with record fine in B.C. fraud: "former B.C. man has been hit with a record $47.1 million in penalties and a lifetime trading ban for defrauding investors of more than $15 million.
Sung Wan (Sean) Kim was a registered futures dealer who promised members of his Burnaby church returns as high as five per cent a month investing in futures and options trading, as well as U.S. Treasury bills.
Kim diverted the money he collected from 35 B.C. investors and one Korean investor into his own bank account and fled late last year to South Korea, where he is behind bars.
'It had elements of a Ponzi scheme, he promised high returns and low risk,' said Lang Evans, director of enforcement for the B.C. Securities Commission. 'He exploited the trust that people gave to him and he betrayed that trust to his clients, he betrayed his community and he betrayed his congregation.'"