A B.C. man who raised $1.4 million from 13 investors over a yearlong period in a company that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme has agreed to pay back a portion of the money through a BC Securities Commission settlement agreement.
Keith Henry Alexander admitted to the BCSC — the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating capital markets through the administration of the Securities Act — that he engaged in both the illegal distribution of securities and unregistered trading.
Alexander was an investor in The Little Loan Shoppe, a Ponzi scheme that tricked investors into thinking it was a payday loan business. The Little Loan Shoppe operated through a group of companies controlled by Doris Nelson, who used investors like Alexander to bring in new clients, paying the existing investors through funds they’d brought to the scheme.
The BCSC report detailed that Alexander has agreed to pay back a portion of the money he raised contrary to the Securities Act.
“Alexander has agreed to pay to the BCSC $7,500 in respect of settlement of this matter, as well as the $20,000 obtained as a result of his misconduct. He is also prohibited from trading in securities (with limited exceptions), and from becoming or acting as a director, officer, promoter, or registrant (with limited exceptions) for a period of three years. Alexander is also banned, for the same period, from acting in a management or consultative capacity in connection with the securities market, and from engaging in investor relations activities.”
Alexander also lost his own money that he invested in The Little Loan Shoppe and has so far returned $143,000 to investors. The BCSC has scheduled a separate hearing for Nelson.
