OSC v. David Tuan Seng Lim and Michael Mugford (pump and dump, 2018)

Judgment entered

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 2, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In July 2018 the Ontario Securities Commission, in an expedited inter-jurisdictional proceeding, imposed trading, director and registrant bans on Vancouver adviser David Tuan Seng Lim and Michael Mugford, reciprocating findings by the British Columbia Securities Commission that they manipulated the market for Urban Barns Foods shares in late 2009 and early 2010. The Ontario order imposes no monetary sanction.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

—

Alleged gain

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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.

What is alleged to have happened

the regulator announced this matter on March 28, 2018 as release 2018-14. The respondents named are David Tuan Seng Lim and Michael Mugford (2 individuals, 0 entities). The action was brought in the Capital Markets Tribunal (Ontario).

The British Columbia findings recited in the Statement of Allegations describe a paid tout-sheet and mailing campaign, costing about US$1.2 million, promoting a shell with no operations while shares held in a custodial account were sold for about US$4.76 million. The OSC reciprocates those findings. This library tags the matter as pump and dump and paid stock promotion.

The conduct is recorded against equities.

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

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 techniques 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.

• Pump and dump — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Paid stock promotion — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2018-03-27 Statement of Allegations
2. 2018-03-28 Notice of Hearing
3. 2018-07-19 Reasons and Decision
4. 2018-07-19 Reasons and Decision

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
• Statement of Allegations
• Notice of Hearing
• Reasons and Decision
• Reasons and Decision

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.