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by Mike Caswell

Vancouver's Marco Babini will soon be a free man, a Boston judge having sentenced him to time served for his part in a fraud on the OTC Markets. Prosecutors claimed that Mr. Babini, 62, was part of a "rotten" scheme that would have defrauded investors of $1-million or more through kickbacks and paid promoters. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) He ran afoul of law enforcement after having a conversation with an undercover FBI about the possibility of having brokers arrange buying in return for kickbacks.

Mr. Babini, who previously pleaded guilty, received his sentence in an appearance before a federal judge on Wednesday, March 13. The time-served sentence amounts to 73 days that he previously spent in custody, plus about eight months that he has spent living in the U.S. under house arrest. In addition, the judge ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine, with the money to be satisfied with a $100,000 appearance bond that he previously paid into the court.

Wednesday's sentence is no surprise for Mr. Babini, as it matches the term that he negotiated when he agreed to plead guilty. While his scheme was ultimately unsuccessful, prosecutors said that some form of punishment was necessary to deter other would-be stock market fraudsters. Mr. Babini and his associates manipulated a stock, had shares poised offshore for sale and intended to inflict losses of $1.28-million on investors, prosecutors said.

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