Vancouver resident faces BC capital markets ban after U.S. stock fraud guilty plea

Steve Marko Bajic, 56, pleaded guilty in 2023 to pump-and-dump securities fraud in the U.S. A BC Securities Commission hearing is set for Sept. 8.

Vancouver man's U.S. pump-and-dump conviction triggers Canadian ban hearing

Google News CA — Crime (EN) reports that a British Columbia resident who admitted to participating in an international securities fraud conspiracy in the United States is now set to face a reciprocal capital markets ban in Canada.

Steve Marko Bajic, 56, a dual citizen of Canada and Croatia, pleaded guilty in November 2023 before a federal court judge in Boston to conspiring to commit securities fraud. The BC Securities Commission has scheduled an oral hearing for September 8 that could result in Bajic being barred from Canadian capital markets.

Bajic was part of a group that orchestrated multiple pump-and-dump schemes. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, he used a network of foreign shell companies to conceal his beneficial ownership of shares in dozens of U.S. penny stock companies — holdings that would otherwise have required disclosure to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He then covertly ran promotional campaigns designed to drive investor demand for those shares before offloading them through banks and brokers he misled.

Trading proceeds from Bajic's activities reached into the tens of millions of dollars, much of which flowed to control persons of the companies involved in the conspiracy.

Rather than a maximum five-year prison sentence, Bajic received one day of time served and was ordered to forfeit US$837,734 representing his illegal profits. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to pursue restitution given the volume of victims.

Bajic is identified in civil proceedings as a client of Fred Sharp, a West Vancouver resident and former lawyer. Beginning in August 2021, U.S. regulators and prosecutors named Sharp in multiple parallel civil and criminal indictments, alleging he was the "mastermind" of numerous such schemes run out of his Vancouver offices. Sharp was found liable for fraud in civil proceedings and still faces unresolved criminal charges. The SEC is currently pursuing Sharp's assets in BC Supreme Court, where he owes US$52.9 million.

The BC Securities Commission's director of enforcement, Doug Muir, laid out the case for a reciprocal ban in a November 5, 2025 application. "Market manipulation and fraud, by their very nature, involve deceit," Muir wrote. "In light of your deceitful conduct, your participation in British Columbia's capital markets would pose a significant ongoing risk to investors and to the integrity of the capital markets of British Columbia."

Muir also noted the cross-border dimension: "Given the increasing integration of capital markets across North America and the fact that Canadian investors may purchase securities offered in the United States, damage to the reputation of U.S. securities markets may jeopardize Canadian investor confidence in the integrity of capital markets generally."

A reciprocal-order application, if granted, would mirror the bans Bajic already faces in the U.S., as his American conviction would also constitute a violation of the BC Securities Act. Bajic faces a blanket prohibition on trading securities, serving as a company director or officer, and promoting, managing or advising any company that issues shares. The application confirms Bajic is a BC resident but does not specify his precise location.

The commission currently has at least three other reciprocal ban applications involving British Columbians alleged to have worked with or for Sharp, including Delta resident Jackson Friesen, Avtar Singh Dhillon, and Zhiying Yvonne Gasarch. In the SEC's civil fraud case against Gasarch — in which she was found liable — the complaint alleges Bajic was in contact with Gasarch, whom Sharp codenamed "Wires," to distribute sales proceeds.

Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)