The British Columbia Securities Commission has issued a notice of hearing, alleging that a Vancouver woman and two companies that she controls committed a fraud that raised $83 million from 218 investors.
The notice alleges that notary public Rashida Samji offered what she claimed was a "secure investment" to investors between 2003 and January.
The BCSC's executive director, Paul Bourque, said in a release that Samji told investors that:
- their money would be safely held in her notary trust account and would not be paid out to any party;
- her trust account was monitored and audited by the Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia (SNPBC); and
- she would provide a B.C. winery, the Mark Anthony Group Inc., and other wineries with a comfort letter, which would allow the wineries to use the funds as collateral for loans in foreign countries.
Samji also allegedly told investors that they would receive a fee of between 12% and 30% annually in return for putting their money in trust with Samji.
Bourque alleges that all of Samji's claims were false.
In reality, Samji had no notary trust account, he said. She deposited investors' money into two personal bank accounts in the name of her two companies: Rashida Samji Notary Corp. and Samji & Assoc. Holdings Inc., he alleges.
She did not provide letters of comfort to any wineries, and she paid existing investors with money from new investors under the guise of investment fees, Bourque alleges.
He also claims that Samji falsified documents and created a false land title search as part of a fraudulent mortgage.
Samji became a notary public in 1988. In 1995, she began running her notary practice through her notary corporation. In 2006, she became a "roving notary" whose practice was limited to covering the practices of other notaries due to illness or vacation.
The SNPBC suspended Samji on February 7, and obtained a court order appointing a custodian over Samji's practice on February 8. She subsequently submitted her resignation on March 6, 2012.
A class action suit was launched March 2 by investors into the scheme, represented by plaintiffs Lawrence Brian Jer and Jun Jer.
