In April, the Ontario Securities Commission levelled allegations of serious misconduct against Toronto based Agoracom Investor Relations Corp. and its two founders, George Tsiolis and Apostolis Kondakos. The commission accused the pair of directing their employees to pose as investors and anonymously post thousands of messages on Agoracom's website about corporate clients. The alleged purpose was to create the impression of active public interest in the shares of these client companies, many of which are based in Vancouver. On Friday, the OSC released a settlement agreement in which Tsiolis and Kondakos admitted the allegations and agreed to heavy sanctions. In particular, they admitted Agoracom reps had up to 200 aliases and "were required to make up to two posts per hub per day or risk having their pay docked. On occasion, Agoracom staff conversed with themselves on the forums using different aliases." Tthe OSC terminated Agoracom's registration as a limited market dealer, and suspended the registrations of Tsiolis and Kondakos for 10 years and ordered to pay a $125,000 penalty and $25,000 in costs.Click on the title to read the full story.
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