OSC v. Christopher Candusso and others (insider trading, 2018)

Judgment entered

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In 2018 the Ontario Securities Commission brought an insider tipping and trading case over shares of Amaya Gaming Group ahead of its 2014 acquisition of the PokerStars owner. In May 2022 the Tribunal found five of the seven respondents liable and did not find the case proven against Claudio Candusso and John Fielding. In January 2023 it ordered market bans of 3 to 15 years, penalties totalling C$2.95 million and disgorgement of about C$1.44 million.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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Penalty as published

C$3m

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars. This regulator states penalties in CAD. The figure is recorded as published and is not converted, so it does not appear in the USD totals or medians used elsewhere on this site.

What is alleged to have happened

The Ontario Securities Commission announced this matter on November 23, 2018 as release 2018-70, bringing it before the Capital Markets Tribunal against seven individuals. Staff alleged that Majd Kitmitto learned in April 2014 that Amaya Gaming Group was to acquire Oldford Group, the parent of the PokerStars operator, and passed the information to others, who traded or passed it on.

In its May 26, 2022 decision the Tribunal found that Kitmitto tipped Steven Vannatta, Christopher Candusso and Sandy Goss; that Vannatta, Christopher Candusso, Goss and Frank Fakhry traded Amaya shares while holding the information; and that Vannatta, Goss and Fakhry also tipped others. It also found that Vannatta misled Staff and hid his trading from his employer, and that Goss and Fakhry recommended Amaya to clients while holding the information. It did not find proven that Claudio Candusso traded or that John Fielding traded, nor several of the tipping allegations. Those two respondents therefore carry no finding in this record.

In its January 20, 2023 sanctions order the Tribunal imposed trading bans and director, officer and registrant bans of 10 years on Kitmitto, 15 years on Vannatta, 3 years on Christopher Candusso, 15 years on Goss and 10 years on Fakhry. Administrative penalties were C$600,000, C$650,000, C$100,000, C$1,000,000 and C$600,000 in that order, totalling C$2,950,000, which is the figure stored in Canadian dollars. Disgorgement was C$54,435 (Vannatta), C$30,782 (Christopher Candusso), C$1,228,509 (Goss) and C$126,546 (Fakhry), about C$1.44 million, shown here only in text. Costs ordered are not counted.

This library tags the matter as insider trading. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary documents linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the decisions.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Insider trading — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2019-07-15 Reasons and Decision
2. 2019-09-25 Reasons and Decision
3. 2020-01-03 Reasons and Decision
4. 2020-01-24 Reasons and Decision
5. 2020-02-11 Other
6. 2020-06-02 Reasons and Decision
7. 2020-07-20 Reasons and Decision
8. 2020-08-07 Reasons and Decision
9. 2020-08-20 Reasons and Decision
10. 2020-09-21 Other
11. 2020-09-22 Other
12. 2020-09-22 Other
13. 2022-05-26 Merits decision: five respondents found liable
14. 2023-01-20 Sanctions and costs order

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• Tribunal proceeding
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Other
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision
• Other
• Other
• Merits decision
• Sanctions order

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.