Case Law Summaries - Criminal

R. V. PAVAO, 2018 ONSC 2506

In this criminal case, Carlos Alberto Pavao was found guilty of defrauding 10 investors in respect of the sale of shares in two gold mining companies, as well as one count of defrauding the public. Key to finding Mr. Pavao guilty was the Court's assessment that he was an unreliable and untruthful witness.

Mr. Pavao, a successful businessman, was the principal of 6048382 Canada Inc. (604) and the sole signatory on the corporate bank account. In 2005, a small group of people began investing in mineral stocks, with the funds to purchase shares being funnelled through 604. The charges in this case involved the shares in two companies: Rubicon Minerals Corporation, a public company that owned a gold mine in Northern Ontario, and Africo Resources Ltd., a gold and mineral exploration company owned and controlled by Rubicon until 2006, when it went public.