Quebec’s financial markets tribunal has fined four British Columbians a total of $3.5 million after finding they carried out an international pump-and-dump scheme involving shares of a mining company. The ruling also imposes market bans and governance restrictions in Quebec, while one of the men, Frederick Sharp, continues to face major civil and criminal proceedings in the United States.

Quebec’s financial markets regulator has imposed $3.5 million in sanctions against four British Columbians after finding they participated in an international pump-and-dump stock fraud involving shares of a mining company.

According to the decision, West Vancouver businessman Frederick Langford Sharp was fined $2 million, while Pasquale Antonio Rocca of Vancouver was fined $630,000, Shawn Van Damme of Maple Ridge was fined $500,000, and Vincenzo Antonio Carnovale of West Vancouver was fined $300,000. All four were also banned from engaging in securities-related activity in Quebec and prohibited for five years from serving as an officer or director of certain market participants in the province

The case centered on trading in shares of mining company Solo during 2011 and 2012. Quebec’s Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal found that the four men concealed ownership of the shares, helped artificially inflate the stock price through promotions, and then sold into the market, generating about $2.6 million in profits while leaving unsuspecting investors exposed to the losses. The ruling said the scheme relied on shell companies in jurisdictions including the Marshall Islands, Belize, and the Antilles, as well as banking arrangements in Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The sanctions follow a long jurisdictional fight over whether Quebec authorities could pursue alleged securities misconduct involving people outside the province. That dispute ultimately reached the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled that Quebec could proceed where there was a sufficient connection between the misconduct and the province. The decision is significant because securities fraud often crosses provincial and international borders, while Canada still operates without a single national securities regulator.

Sharp’s regulatory troubles extend well beyond Quebec. The article notes that he was permanently banned from B.C.’s investment markets in 2023. It also says a U.S. federal court issued a default judgment against him in 2022 over allegations that he helped facilitate a long-running penny stock fraud scheme involving hundreds of companies and gross sales exceeding US$1 billion. U.S. penalties and repayment orders against Sharp totalled US$53 million, and a B.C. court has already approved enforcement of nearly US$29 million of those penalties in British Columbia. A B.C. asset freeze order was also issued in 2024.

Sharp also reportedly faces criminal prosecution in the United States in connection with the alleged larger pump-and-dump operation. While he did not defend the U.S. civil case, the article says he has denied the SEC’s allegations in related proceedings in British Columbia and argues that he was denied procedural fairness and that U.S. authorities lacked jurisdiction over him. Carnovale is also named in a separate U.S. SEC prosecution tied to another alleged pump-and-dump scheme.

The Quebec ruling is another reminder of how modern stock manipulation schemes can be structured across multiple countries, using offshore entities, nominee ownership, and foreign banking channels to obscure who is controlling and profiting from the trades. It also shows Canadian regulators continuing to pursue enforcement even when the alleged fraud extends well beyond a single province.

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Originally published on Canadian Fraud News.