The B.C. Securities Commission has fined a penny stock CEO $50,000 for failing to file insider reports in a timely manner after being told to do so 15 times since 2011.
Ahmad Doroudian, the CEO and a director of B.C.-based BetterLife Pharma Inc. (CSE:BETR), had already amassed $23,050 in unpaid invoices for 15 late filings related to public market transactions, according to the commission.
On May 21, BCSC executive director Peter Brady took a bigger step to get Doroudian to comply by issuing the $50,000 administrative penalty.
Doroudian recently completed 624 public market transactions involving more than five million shares with a total reported value of $986,398.
But Doroudian didn’t report any of those recent trades on the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders within five days of making them, as required.
Brady stated in a press release that it is “important to demonstrate to the market that there can be consequences for late insider reporting above and beyond late fees, and that the accuracy of what is filed matters.”
BetterLife trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange at $0.11 per share.
“I am disappointed by the recent BCSC penalty, but extremely proud of my contributions to BetterLife and the company’s achievements thus far,” Doroudian said in a May 22 press release.
BIV reached out to the company’s investor relations team by email to provide Doroudian with an opportunity to comment further but did not receive a response by publication time.
