A B.C. businessman and the Nevada-based company he once directed have been fined $70,000 for distributing millions of dollars worth of shares and promissory notes in violation of a cease trade order between October 2019 and March 2022.

A B.C. Securities Commission hearing panel levied a $20,000 fine against Green Hygienics Holdings Inc. and $50,000 fine against Ronald Wayne Loudoun, who was also banned from the investment markets for six years, according to a statement from the commission Monday, June 15.

While the company was registered in Nevada, it was regulated by the commission. During the time of the violations Loudoun was residing in either Vancouver or Kelowna, according to commission staff.

Despite being barred from doing so since 2014, the commission said the company, under sole direction from Loudoun, issued $5.4 million of treasury shares and $3.1 million of promissory notes, the commission stated.

The penny stock company once touted so-called clean energy products but now sits dormant with a share valued at a fraction of a cent.

The commission said some investors were harmed. “Both Green Hygienics and Loudoun were enriched by the misconduct,” the commission added.

At the hearing last March, the panel found Loudoun “authorized, permitted and acquiesced in Green Hygienics’ breach of the [cease trade order] and therefore also breached the [cease trade order] in the same ways,” the commission added.

Commission staff asserted Loudoun knew he was violating the cease trade order when issuing the assets.

Neither Loudoun nor Green Hygienics participated in the hearing. The commission stated Loudoun’s market ban will remain until he pays his fine.

Loudoun resigned as CEO, president, treasurer, secretary and director of Green Hygienics on Nov. 24, 2022.

[email protected]