Markham, Ont.-headquartered Ignite International Brands Ltd. faces criminal and civil investigations of accounting fraud in the United States, and is under regulatory investigation in Canada, a court filing has revealed.
The U.S. and Securities and Exchange Commission filed a request with a California court Monday to compel Ignite to comply with its investigative subpoena. The court filing and its exhibits reveal Ignite faces multiple grand jury subpoenas in the U.S. In Canada, the company says, it faces “numerous requests from the regulatory authorities.”
In the court filing, SEC Staff attorney Patricia Pei said the agency is seeking information regarding “possible violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws” by Ignite. She says SEC staff has uncovered information “that indicates [Ignite] may have filed public financial statements that include false or misleading representations” regarding its revenue in 2020.
In an Aug. 1 email, attached as an exhibit to the court file, Mr. Hughes asked for the SEC matter to be stayed, telling the SEC the matters covered by the DOJ’s grand jury subpoena were “highly likely to overlap significantly” with the SEC’s, and “requiring the company to address civil issues while simultaneously responding to grand jury subpoenas ... seems inappropriate.”In an Aug. 22 follow-up letter, Mr.
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