British Columbia Securities Commission imposes market bans on Colin Heatherington and Lorne Allison based on U.S. court and CIRO findings

The British Columbia Securities Commission has barred former trader Colin Jeffrey Heatherington and former mutual fund representative Lorne Stuart Allison from participating in British Columbia’s investment market, following misconduct findings by other authorities in two unrelated matters. Heatherington’s sanctions follow his guilty plea in a U.S. court to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud tied to a penny stock scheme that led to USD 215 million in investor losses and at least USD 15 million in personal gains; a California judge sentenced him in 2024 to 3.5 years in prison, two years of probation and restitution. The BCSC panel issued a lifetime ban on Heatherington from acting as a director or officer of any issuer or registrant, from becoming a registrant and from trading in securities other than in accounts in his own name. Allison’s sanctions build on a Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization finding that he engaged “deliberately and deceptively” in securities-related business outside his firm, for which CIRO permanently banned him and imposed a $70,000 fine and $10,000 in costs; the BCSC panel permanently prohibited him from acting as a director or officer of any issuer or registrant and from becoming a registrant, and banned him for 10 years from other market activities including promotional activities and trading in securities except in his own account.