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by Mike Caswell

Quebec's Jean-Francois Amyot has avoided a default judgment of up to $12.2-million for a pink sheets pump-and-dump, at least for now. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had sought the default judgment, essentially a victory without a trial, arguing that Mr. Amyot had willfully failed to appear for a court-ordered deposition. The judge, however, has given Mr. Amyot another chance to attend the deposition, failing which the SEC may renew its request.

The decision is part of a civil case that the SEC has been pursuing against Mr. Amyot for the manipulation of Spencer Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company that purportedly held drug delivery patents. The SEC claims that he and others were behind a 10-month manipulation of the stock that included a bogus $245-million takeover offer. During the scheme, Mr. Amyot sold millions of unregistered shares of Spencer, realizing $5.8-million in profits, according to the SEC.

As part of the ordinary preparations for trial the SEC had scheduled Mr. Amyot for a deposition (a pretrial interview, usually mandatory, in which the regulator would question him). Mr. Amyot initially sought to delay the interview, but the judge ordered that it proceed on June 25, 2014. Despite that order, Mr. Amyot refused to attend, telling the SEC that he would not participate unless he received a government-funded lawyer. (His lawyer had quit the case, after which he asked the judge for a court-appointed one, but the judge refused.)

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