B.C. Supreme Court orders fraudster to forfeit LIF payments

By Michelle Schriver | December 27, 2024 | Last updated on December 27, 2024
1 min read
Scales with a courthouse in the background
AdobeStock / Annaspoka

The Supreme Court of British Columbia has ordered a man who perpetrated one of the province’s largest investment frauds to pay the B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) annual payments from two of his registered accounts.

Earle Pasquill, who owes the BCSC $36.7 million, must forfeit to the regulator any payments from his two life income fund (LIF) accounts, the BCSC said in a release on Friday.

The LIF accounts totalled $551,349 as of April 2024, and Pasquill withdraws about $75,000 annually from the accounts, the release said.

“Any payments the BCSC receives from [the LIFs] will be made available to victims of the fraud,” the regulator said in the release.

The decision follows amendments in 2023 to B.C.’s Pension Benefits Standards Act and the Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act to make clear that certain pension-derived funds aren’t exempt from enforcement processes, the release said.

In 2014, a BCSC panel found that Pasquill and Michael Lathigee, who jointly directed and controlled the Freedom Investment Club, defrauded investors of $21.7 million in 2008 through a real estate development scheme.

Pasquill is liable for that amount as well as an administrative penalty of $15 million.

He has paid none of the sanctions, the release said.

In 2023, the commission sought to collect sanctions from Pasquill’s wife using amendments to B.C. securities legislation that took effect in 2020.

Those amendments allow the regulator to collect against relatives who receive property from fraudsters for less than market value, including property transfers that occur before the misconduct.

Subscribe to our newsletters

Michelle Schriver

Michelle is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and sister publication Investment Executive. She has worked with the team since 2015 and been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and SABEW for her reporting. Email her at michelle@newcom.ca.