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A Victoria resident who was criminally convicted of theft related to real estate transactions has now been banned from Canadian investment markets, according to the B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC).
In November 2022, Randolph Michael Rochefort, now 72, received a two-year conditional jail sentence after pleading guilty to four counts of theft over $5,000 after using clients’ investment funds for his own personal expenses and cash withdrawals.
Between 2013 and 2016, Rochefort brokered sales of securities for a 160-acre land development in Alberta.
"Rochefort had these investors forward their funds to Reserve Cascadia Tours Limited, a B.C. company associated with Rochefort’s various business activities. Investors understood that these funds would then be forwarded to the real estate development company for investment.
"Instead of forwarding all of the investors’ funds as promised, Rochefort used some of them for personal expenses and cash withdrawals," the commission stated in 2022.
Rochefort must resign any position he holds as a director or officer of an issuer or registrant, and is permanently prohibited from trading or purchasing any securities or derivatives outside accounts in his own name and through a registered broker.
The BCSC ban applies to all of Canada's provincial securities regulators.
With files from Times Colonist
