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by Mike Caswell
Vancouver-linked securities lawyer Andrew Coldicutt has asked that a judge help him keep the names of his clients away from the prying eyes of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He says that the identifies of those clients are confidential. He is professionally obligated to keep them a secret, he contends.
Mr. Coldicutt is responding to a court case that the SEC filed in California in which the regulator claims that Mr. Coldicutt is not co-operating with an investigation. The SEC is looking into the initial public offerings of five companies. Those companies are run by an undisclosed control person or promoter, the SEC says. As part of the investigation, the regulator issued subpoenas for Mr. Coldicutt's records, but according to the SEC he refused to co-operate.
For his part, Mr. Coldicutt says that his refusal is justified. In a response filed on May 31, 2017, he cites the confidentiality of lawyer-client communications. The California Bar and the California Rules of Professional Conduct mandate that lawyers preserve the secrets of clients, even secrets that may be incriminating. The duty is "virtually absolute" he says. The information that the SEC is seeking would not only include the identities of clients, it would include monetary transactions, Mr. Coldicutt says. Such information is private and "must be protected against unwarranted intrusion," the response states.
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