While he has just been sentenced After three and a half years in prison, the man behind the virtual currency PlexCoin, Dominic Lacroix, can regain his freedom while he appeals his guilty verdict.
A Superior Court judge authorized the provisional release of the 42-year-old man on Friday morning following a request filed by his lawyer the day before, the same day he received his prison sentence.
Dominic Lacroix contests the judgment rendered in December which found him guilty of three offenses Securities Act. A notice of appeal was also filed to this effect in January.
The Code of Criminal Procedure provides that a judge can release, under conditions, a defendant who requests it while he is in the appeal process.
Several conditions
According to the court document we consulted, Lacroix must notably keep the peace, notify the court of any change of address or employment and not leave the province of Quebec except for work purposes in Canada or with the authorization of the pursuer, that is to say the Financial Markets Authority (AMF).
He also had to deposit his passport with his lawyer, and as ordered by an administrative court in 2018, he is not allowed to carry out securities transactions.
Lacroix’s lawyer, Me Sarah Desabrais did not want to comment.
“Vast humbug”
Judge Steve Magnan of the Quebec court on Thursday sentenced Dominic Lacroix to 42 months of imprisonment as well as a fine of $150,000.
In 2017, the sale of the virtual currency PlexCoin raised the colossal sum of $10.7 million by attracting thousands of investors around the world who believed they were participating in a revolutionary concept.
Lacroix promised incredible returns and the support of a team of professionals. But in reality, his promises and his writings “were nothing but a vast hoax”, ruled the magistrate.
The Quebec resident was found guilty in December of three counts of illegal distributions without a prospectus, in Quebec and abroad, and for conveying false information about these investments.
According to the facts retained by the court, the forty-year-old admitted in 2020 to having diverted for his benefit $4.5 million of the sums invested in Plexcorps, the entity issuing the cryptocurrency.
A little less than $3.2 million would have been reimbursed to investors thanks to steps taken by the AMF and certain companies which allowed the purchase of PlexCoins by credit card.
