A North Vancouver man who stole more than $1 million from investors and lied to cover his tracks has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Between 2012 and 2017, Ward Derek Jensen, 54, took money from nine investors and gambled it on high-risk trades, despite not being licensed to trade securities. As losses were piling up, Jensen was producing fraudulent investment statements to show consistent profits. When one of the victims sought to cash out, Jensen forged a letter purporting to be from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claiming the funds were temporarily frozen.
The B.C. Securities Commission began an investigation and Jensen was arrested in 2022. Initially, he was charged with nine counts of fraud and four counts of forgery, however, before the matter went to trial, he pleaded guilty in January to one lesser count of theft over $5,000.
All told, Jensen took more than US$1.6 million from nine people, starting with a man who was once his closest friend, followed by numerous friends and family members referred to Jensen by the first victim.
“In the end, their trust was broken and their savings and their ability to earn money off legitimate investments was depleted,” North Vancouver provincial court Judge Timothy Hinkson said at Jensen’s sentencing on Aug. 16.
In victim impact statements delivered at a hearing in June, those who lost money in Jensen’s deceit spoke of being financially ruined and suffering from stress and depression.
The Crown sought a prison term of three and a half to four years.
The defence, however, said Jensen should be able to serve his sentence while living at home and supporting his family.
Soon after the investment scheme fell apart and he confessed to his friend that the money was gone, Jensen was in a motocycle crash that left him unable to work for several years, putting his family in desperate finances. He has since returned to work, however, his family has no contingency plans or reserves to rely on, the defence noted.
And Jensen never sought out any of the victims, as he too was a victim of the scheme, losing his own money in the same investments.
Hinkson, though, said he was “unmoved” by the defence’s submissions.
“This was not a short-term crime of opportunity, and given the duration, amount involved and the steps that Mr. Jensen took to conceal his conduct, I do not think that it matters much how his victims found him,” he said. “Regarding the unfortunate collateral effects of any sentence on Mr. Jensen’s family, he alone is responsible for that, and he and his family are in no different position than any other offender facing a possible sentence.”
Jensen has accepted responsibility for his crime and shown that he is remorseful, Hinkson acknowledged, including entering an early guilty plea that saved the courts and victims from a difficult trial.
“However, I find on balance of probabilities that he continues to lack insight, given his reliance on his own losses and the actions of others as an explanation for his conduct,” Hinkson added.
The fact that Jensen was in a position of trust was an aggravating factor in the crimes, Hinkson said.
“[The victims] were vulnerable because they trusted Mr. Jensen, who has demonstrated himself to be an unscrupulous character,” he said.
Hinkson said his sentence ought to send a message that the courts denounce such behaviour, “because cases like this leave much personal suffering and devastation in their wakes.”
“Incarceration is the only suitable way in which to express society’s condemnation of Mr. Jensen’s conduct in order to deter similar conduct from him and others in the future,” he said.
Upon the sentence being handed down, a court sheriff put Jensen into handcuffs and took him into custody.
Beyond the prison sentence, Hinkson also ordered Jensen to make restitution payments to his victims. One had already been repaid more than US$600,000 but, to the other eight, the judge ordered Jensen to pay back more than US$900,000, based on the size of their losses.
“I’m mindful of the fact that Mr. Jensen is unlikely to ever be able to wholly reimburse the victims,” Hinkson acknowledged.
