Keith Patterson

Staff of the Ontario Securities Commission alleged that the respondents, K.Y. Ho and Betty Ho, engaged in insider trading contrary to subsection 76(1) of the Securities Act by disposing of ATI shares prior to a public announcement that ATI would fall short of its forecasted revenue and earnings for Q3-2000.

The Commission dismissed the allegations, finding that Staff failed to establish that the revenue shortfall was a known fact at the time the shares were disposed of, and consequently, the respondents could not have had actual knowledge of it.

Furthermore, the Commission held that K.Y. Ho's charitable donations of shares were gifts made in good faith and did not constitute 'sales' for the purposes of the insider trading provisions.