In a panel order released late last week, the B.C. Securities Commission ordered a Victoria mortgage broker to pay a total of $243,500 in fines, along with disbanding the broker’s firm.According to the Commission, CBM Canada’s Best Mortgage Corp. will no longer be doing business, and Lance Sanford Cook has been temporarily barred from trading amid findings that he has illegally distributed securities from June 2010 up to December that year.Cook and his firm received a total of $380,000 from various investors—some of which who were either retired or close to retirement—in exchange for unsecured interest-bearing promissory notes. The Commission found no evidence that either Cook or CBM attempted to file a prospectus, which breached a section of the Securities Act.“We have found the respondents’ misconduct to be serious,” the panel in charge of the case said, as quoted by the Times Colonist. “They were careless or reckless with respect to compliance with security laws. For that reason, we believe that they represent a serious risk to our capital markets and that significant market prohibitions are appropriate in the circumstances.”“[The] investors have little opportunity to recover their losses,” the panel noted, adding that the investors received only interest totalling $161,500.Cook has also been banned from trading in securities (with limited exceptions), serving as a director, officer, or promoter, or serving as a consultant or manager in securities markets and in investor relations activities. All the bans are effective for 5 years, or until Cook completes payment of the fines.