Alberta Securities Commission imposes 10-year market participation and registration bans on Jeffrey Brian Ber after fraud and corruption conviction

The Alberta Securities Commission issued a public-interest order requiring Jeffrey Brian Ber to resign from director or officer positions across a wide range of regulated market entities and barring him for 10 years from trading, relying on exemptions, registering, and carrying out key securities-market activities, following criminal findings of fraud and corrupt conduct. The order follows an Alberta Court of King’s Bench decision that found Ber guilty of two counts of fraud over CAD 5,000 and of corruptly accepting a CAD 104,568.75 secret commission from Blackbird Energy Inc., for which he was later sentenced to seven years in jail. The conviction decision described conduct in 2017 when, as a registered investment advisor at a Canadian bank, he allocated about CAD 6 million of Blackbird shares to client accounts during a prospectus offering without disclosing a prior friendship with a Blackbird executive or the commission arrangement; the court also found involvement in falsifying know-your-client forms to alter risk tolerances without client permission, affecting clients including retired seniors. The ASC panel treated his status as a registrant at the time as an aggravating factor and found he abused a position of trust for personal gain. The cease-trade and related prohibitions apply for 10 years from December 17, 2025, and the required resignations take effect immediately, subject to limited exceptions.