The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has announced that, on Jan. 8, April Vuong of Kitchener, Ontario, was sentenced to 12 months in jail by Justice Brownstone of the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto, Ontario.

Vuong was sentenced to jail after pleading guilty on September 28, 2018 to violating a 15-year trading ban imposed by the OSC in November 2013.

The OSC says these charges pertain to quasi-criminal offences related to trading in securities. “Specifically, in 2014, Vuong, using an alias, actively solicited a Canadian resource company to raise capital for a mining project, negotiating the terms of this proposed deal and producing a "Debenture Term Sheet" to further this transaction.”

The investigation and trial in this matter was conducted by staff from the Joint Serious Offences Team (JSOT). JSOT was established by the OSC as an enforcement partnership between the OSC, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Financial Crime program and the Ontario Provincial Police Anti-Rackets Branch.

Vuong's jail sentence on January 8, 2019 follows a recent conviction and ruling in a separate matter, criminal in nature. On July 5, 2018, following a four-week jury trial in Brampton, Ontario, Vuong and her husband Hao Quach were found guilty of committing fraud over $5,000, contrary to the Criminal Code. This matter also involved illegal acts related to the trading of securities by Vuong. Following the guilty verdict, in October of 2018, Vuong and Quach were each sentenced to six years in jail.