BRITISH COLUMBIA: Man Under Investigation For $5K Offering Fraud Launched Double-Down Scam; Won Sang Chen Cho Banned From Securities Markets; BCSC Says He ‘Poses A Serious And Continuing Risk’

A British Columbia man already under investigation for duping investors $5,000 at a time doubled down and then went for $10,000, the British Columbia Securities Commission said.

Won Sang Chen Cho, also known as Craig Cho, now has been banned for life from the securities trade, the agency said.

Cho, the agency said, “poses a serious and continuing risk to investors and to our markets.”

In addition, he has been ordered to make restitution of $20,569 to scammed investors and to pay a $200,000 administrative penalty.

BCSC identified Cho’s businesses as Chosen Media and Groops Media. The firms were cease-traded.

From a BCSC statement (italics added):

Between January 2011 and February 2012, Cho, doing business as Chosen Media, promoted securities on the Vancouver Craigslist website and sought minimum investments of $5,000. The panel found that Cho raised $101,846 from five investors, to whom he returned purported investment returns of $62,000.

Cho admitted to promising extremely high rates of return that were “risk free”, and to telling prospective investors that he would deposit their funds into accounts at various sports betting websites. He admitted that he told investors that profit would be generated by the “generous signup and reload bonuses” provided by the sports betting websites.

The panel also found that in December 2012, during the course of the Chosen Media investigation, Cho sent an e-mail promoting an investment with Groops Media requiring a minimum $10,000 investment. He admitted that this was after he had been warned by BCSC staff that he must comply with prospectus requirements when distributing securities through Chosen Media.