It’s the end of the legal line in Canada for the West Vancouver man found liable for a $1 billion stock fraud scheme American authorities alleged he “masterminded” from 2011 to 2019.

On June 25 the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the appeal of Fred Sharp, 74, a former lawyer turned offshore shell facilitator with Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Sharp had contested a June 14, 2024 B.C. Supreme Court judgment that recognized a 2022 default judgment against him in a U.S. federal court, which came after Sharp failed to respond to civil charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The B.C. judge did not accept Sharp’s legal arguments that he was not properly served, thus allowing the SEC to enforce the U.S. judgment and pursue Sharp’s assets via the Foreign Money Claims Act. Sharp appealed but on June 25, 2025 the B.C. Court of Appeal agreed with the judge.

The SEC, represented in the case by Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP lawyers Malcolm Ruby and Will Chamberlain, is only looking to recover the illicit profits, not the US$22.9 million in pre-judgment interest and penalties levied against Sharp.

Criminal charges filed by the U.S. attorney general in Massachusetts against Sharp remain unproven and a trial date has yet to be set.

In 2019, Sharp and at least 18 British Columbian associates were charged in civil and criminal cases for their alleged roles in a network of pump-and-dump fraud schemes through U.S. penny stock firms.

Sharp was accused of creating a web of offshore shell companies to hide ownership of public company shares from regulators via nominees. The beneficial owners—Sharp’s clients—would then run deceitful promotions of the public companies to raise their share value in order to sell to investors at artificially inflated prices.

The B.C. Securities Commission froze brokerage and bank accounts of the accused individuals. In February 2023 Sharp was banned from B.C. markets.

This was not Sharp’s first attempt to appeal to the high court.

In November 2023, Sharp lost a challenge in the Supreme Court of Canada over jurisdictional rights of provincial securities regulators.

Last March, following that long appeal process, Sharp was fined $2 million by Quebec’s Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal after being found liable for securities fraud that took place in 2012.

Joven Narwal, a Vancouver-based lawyer for Sharp, told CBC the tribunal’s ruling will be appealed.

No one from the so-called “Sharp Group” or his network has faced criminal charges or administrative penalties in Canada in connection to the U.S. case.

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