The Vancouver Sun reports in its Saturday edition regulators have ordered penalties of more than $50-million against two B.C. residents as a result of alleged securities fraud. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Sun says Michael Lathigee and Earle Pasquill were accused of fraudulently raising $21.7-million from 698 investors between Feb. 1 and Nov. 15, 2008, in a scheme involving a group of companies they controlled called the Freedom Investment Club. The FIC Group included FIC Real Estate Projects Ltd., FIC Foreclosure Fund Ltd., and WBIC Canada Ltd. A B.C. Securities Commission panel said in a statement Friday the two men raised the money without telling investors important facts. It alleged Mr. Lathigee and Mr. Pasquill both knew when they were distributing the securities that FIC Group had severe cash flow problems, including an unfunded $8-million cost overrun on the company's biggest project. The panel also found the pair used most of the $9.9-million raised from 331 investors in FIC Foreclosure to make loans to related companies instead of investing the money in foreclosures of residential properties in the United States. They were also permanently banned from trading or serving as directors in B.C.