Quebec’s regulator demands prison sentence for founder of virtual currency scam PlexCoin
Quebec’s AMF asks the Court to impose a 6-month prison sentence and a monetary penalty on Dominic Lacroix, at the helm of virtual currency scam PlexCoin.
FinanceFeeds continues to monitor the developments around the legal proceedings against Dominic Lacroix and DL Innov inc, representing PlexCorps and PlexCoin – businesses for virtual currencies.
According to a report by Radio Canada, Quebec’s financial markets authority AMF has demanded a prison sentence of 6 months and a monetary penalty of $10,000 to be imposed on Dominic Lacroix, the architect of the fraudulent scheme. The regulator also demanded a monetary penalty of $100,000 for DL Innov, the business run by Mr Lacroix.
The defense lawyer has called the AMF demands absurd and has asked for a suspended sentence for Lacroix and for smaller monetary penalties – $2,500 for Lacroix, and $10,000 for DL Innov.
Honorable Judge Marc Lesage of the Quebec Superior Court said he will consider the claims of the parties in the case before making his judgement public.
In October this year, the Quebec Superior Court acted in response to a complaint by the AMF and ruled that Dominic Lacroix and DL Innov inc were guilty of contempt of court.
In his decision, Honorable Judge Marc Lesage underlined that the complaint submitted by the regulator proved that the defendants continue to solicit and offer to Quebec residents to invest in PlexCoin, a virtual currency. The solicitation happens in violation of previous orders issued by the Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal (TMF) of Quebec.
In June this year, the Tribunal found that Dominic Lacroix, DL Innov inc., Micro-Prêts inc. and Gap Transit inc were violating securities laws. The Tribunal ordered blocking the bank accounts of the entities and individuals in question and freezing their assets. TMF also banned Dominic Lacroix, Régis Roberge, DL Innov inc. and Micro-Prêts inc. from exercising all securities-related activities and financial advice.
In July this year, TMF banned PlexCorps, PlexCoin, DL Innov inc., Gestio inc. and Dominic Lacroix from all investment-related activities involving targeting Quebec residents from within or outside Quebec.
The entities in question were also ordered to withdraw all of their announcements and investment advertising materials from various Internet sites and elsewhere. In addition, TMF ordered PlexCorps, PlexCoin, DL Innov inc., Gestio inc. and Dominic Lacroix to close the websites www.plexcorps.com and www.plexcoin.com, as well as all other websites of theirs of similar nature, or make them inaccessible for all Quebec IP addresses. Lastly, the Tribunal ordered Facebook Canada Ltd. to close the Facebook accounts of PlexCorps and PlexCoin.
According to AMF estimates, Mr Lacroix has generated more than $11 million thanks to the PlexCoin scheme. Around $7-8 million of this sum has not been uncovered yet.
