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Securities commission orders West Van company head to resign

Dunn crowdfunded over $17,000 from investors without telling them about his history with the securities regulator
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The B.C. Securities Commission is the provincial regulator responsible for enforcing securities legislation in B.C. | Rob Kruyt/BIV

A West Vancouver man has been ordered to resign as the head of the company he founded by the B.C. Securities Commission for violating a previous order and not telling potential investors about his history with the securities commission.

Patrick Aaron Dunn has been ordered to resign as an officer and director of Viribus Structural Connectors Inc. and has been banned from serving as a director or officer for at least seven years.

According to the securities commission, in March 2016, Dunn made an agreement with the commission over unregistered trading and illegal distribution of $50,000 in securities in connection with investments he drummed up for a seniors housing complex in Creston. The order banned Dunn from being the officer or director of a company in which any other person was a shareholder for two years.

In contravention of that settlement, later in 2016, Dunn became a director of two such companies.

Dunn had argued he was listed on company documents by mistake. But the commission ruled that Dunn was the person in control of the companies despite the names of Dunn’s family members which also appeared on corporate documents.

Dunn was also the sole director and officer for Viribus, founded in 2017, a company which manufactured bracing products for home construction, which crowdfunded $17,300 from 69 investors in 2020 through Vested.ca, without telling those people about Dunn’s previous run-ins with the securities commission, as required.

In addition to Dunn being banned as an officer, director or promoter of a regulated company, Viribus has been ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

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