While Vancouver businessman David Sidoo faces a felony charge in the U.S. after being implicated in what American authorities allege was a massive college admissions scam, closer to home, his Vancouver-based company has been put on notice by B.C.’s securities regulator.
But that proposed merger agreement appears to be in question anyway, and East West management doubts the transaction will proceed as originally announced. Some of East West’s shareholders told Postmedia they had been unhappy with the management of the company and had questions about Dylan Sidoo’s appointment to East West’s board of directors long before news broke this month of the college admissions investigation.
The university confirmed this week that Sidoo graduated from that program in 2016, but declined to answer further questions about his degree. The university announced earlier this month they had “initiated a case-by-case review of current students and graduates who may be connected to the alleged scheme.”
A meeting of East West’s shareholders had been scheduled for March 15 in downtown Vancouver to vote on the proposed merger, but that meeting never happened. On March 12 — four days after Sidoo was arrested in California — East West announced it was cancelling the meeting.