A Burnaby husband and wife have been temporarily banned from trading securities in a company alleged to be part of a Ponzi scheme.
The BC Securities Commission has ordered Yan Zhu (a.k.a Rachel Zhu) and her husband Guan Qiang Zhang to stop trading securities related to Bossteam E-Commerce and has issued a notice of hearing. The temporary ban expires May 15.
The commission alleges that Zhu and Zhang raised $1.3 million through an investment scheme in which investors paid $2,000 and $5,000 for memberships offered through the Bossteam E-Commerce website.
The securities commission began investing the couple after receiving two anonymous complaints. The commission said Zhang told investigators that the company has no real source of revenue and that the money paid to investors came from other investors.
“Based on the evidence gathered to date, the notice alleges that Zhu, Zhang and Bossteam E-Commerce appear to have illegally distributed securities and perpetrated securities fraud,” the commission said in a press release.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Nelson Bennett
