A B.C. Securities Commission panel has issued an $18.4-million penalty against a person who used his Nanaimo-based cryptocurrency trading platform to defraud investors.
David Smillie and his numbered company 1081627 B.C. Ltd. — operating as ezBtc — were ordered by the commission to repay $10.4 million of ill-gotten gains and an $8-million administrative fine.
Smillie was found to have taken upwards of $13 million worth of assets from his clients to use for personal expenses or to gamble online.
ezBtc was incorporated…