Private Credit CEO Facing Lifetime Trading Ban Appeals Ruling | Company Business News

(Bloomberg) — The former chief executive officer of Bridging Finance Inc. is appealing a decision from Canada’s top capital markets regulator that found he committed fraud and barred him permanently from trading.

David Sharpe — part of a husband and wife duo that ran the Toronto private lender before it went into receivership in 2021 — is arguing that the Ontario Securities Commission violated his rights and due process protections, according to a statement from his legal team. The team claimed that the tribunal improperly disclosed his confidential testimony and that changes to the Canadian Securities Act were applied retroactively to expand the regulator’s powers.

“The appeal engages every Canadian’s right to protection from abuse of state power,” Sharpe’s lawyer Brian Greenspan said in the statement. “When an agency such as the OSC violates its own statute and no remedy is provided, confidence in the fairness of regulatory justice is undermined.”

Bridging managed more than C$2 billion ($1.5 billion) at its peak before PriceWaterhouseCoopers took control of the firm in 2021. Bridging’s more than 26,000 investors are expected to recover less than half of that, according to documents filed by PwC, the receiver. 

Sharpe didn’t participate in the original tribunal hearings, citing concerns about fairness after a motion to stay proceedings was denied. The tribunal ruled that Sharpe and his wife, Natasha Sharpe, committed multiple frauds at Bridging, including taking kickbacks and misleading investigators. David Sharpe was fined C$3.6 million, while Natasha Sharpe, the firm’s former Chief Investment Officer, was fined nearly C$2 million last month. A third executive, Andrew Mushore, received a C$50,000 penalty.

Last month, David Sharpe’s legal team argued the widespread publication of his evidence was particularly harmful given his public role as a First Nations economic leader. 

“This case has implications beyond Mr. Sharpe and raises serious questions about the limits of regulatory power and the constitutional protection against self-incrimination,” Alistair Crawley, a partner with Crawley MacKewn Brush LLP, said at the time. 

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