The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Securities Commission yesterday called for a police probe into a “fictitious” e-mail purporting to have come from its top executive which criticised proposed Securities Industry Act reforms.

A spokesman for the capital markets regulator said it was “concerned” that the message, to which was attached a lengthy critique of the Securities Industry Bill 2024, was falsely sent under the name of Christina Rolle, its executive director.

“The Commission is concerned that someone created a fictitious e-mail address that gave the impression it was coming from the executive director to make the disclosure, and we’ve reported the matter to the police.”

Separately, Tribune Business sources confirmed that the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s cyber crimes unit has been asked to probe the origins of an e-mail that was also sent to this newspaper. It identified the sender as “Christina Rolle”, and was sent from an address of “rollechristina31@gmail.com”.

Tribune Business elected not to publish the contents, purportedly created by a “Bahamian practicing lawyer who does not desire to be victimised”, on the basis that it lacked credibility because the author/sender failed to identify themselves even to this newspaper.

Besides the media, it is understood the documents were also sent to all Securities Commission licensees and registrants plus members of the Bahamas Bar Association. A nine-page attachment slammed the Securities Industry Bill 2024 for allegedly granting the Securities Commission too much regulatory without sufficient oversight and checks and balances to protect the rights of aggrieved parties.

The regulator, in issuing the Bill for industry consultation at year-end 2023, said it wanted to upgrade the key law governing the Bahamian capital markets to ensure the supervisory framework is “current, competitive and reflects international best practice and standards”.

It said: “The Bill updates and clarifies the Commission’s supervisory authority framework to enable the Commission to address non-compliance with specific statutory obligations immediately through automatic administrative action without a hearing or disciplinary action process.

“These supervisory actions include: Automatic fines; ability to issue orders to licensees and registrants to take specific actions or to cease and desist specific activities; and the ability to require/access any information needed by the Commission to assess the current status of the licensee or registrant as it relates to non-compliance; and attach specific conditions to the license or registration of the non-compliant licensee or registrant.”

The proposed Bill also includes updates to the legislative framework to provide specific enforcement authority related to anti-money laundering and counter terror financing obligations, and addresses deficiencies in the current enforcement regime.

Provisions to publish penalties levied by the regulator have also been included in the proposed Bill, with fines to be made public “as soon as practicable” along with the reason for the breach and identity of the offender.

The Securities Commission said: “Provisions addressing when and what information regarding penalties is appropriate for publication are included in the Bill. Penalties will be required to be published as soon as practicable after the person on whom the penalty is imposed has been informed of that decision, and the notice should include the final decision or summary thereof, the reasons for the decision and the identity of the person against whom the decision is made.”

The proposed bill also updates the requirements for winding-up and free- ing a company’s assets. The Securities Commission said the draft legislation “updated the legislative standards around freezing assets, including scope of authority and the duration of freeze orders, standards around court involvement and flexibility to extend, remove or refer matters for continuation in courts etc.

“The Bill updates the legislative framework to establish the Commission’s authority and locus standi in any matter relating to the dissolution of a licensee or registrant of the Commission. This includes initiating the winding-up of registrants.

“In this regard the Bill sets the foundation for legislative provisions in subsidiary legislation which will address the framework for winding-up licensees and registrants by the Commission.”