Bay Street financier Andrew DeFrancesco banned by Ontario securities regulator

Andrew DeFrancesco has been banned from serving as a director or officer of any reporting issuer in Ontario.

Ontario’s Capital Markets Tribunal has permanently banned Bay Street financier Andrew DeFrancesco from serving as a director or officer of any reporting issuer in Ontario.

Mr. DeFrancesco previously agreed to a similar ban in the United States, as part of a settlement with U.S. regulators in relation to an alleged 2018 “pump-and-dump” scheme involving a small Nasdaq-listed tech company called Cool Holdings Inc .

In a “pump-and-dump,” shareholders in a company “pump” its stock price by hyping the company’s prospects, often by making false or misleading statements, then “dump,” or sell, their shares at inflated prices.

In June, 2023, Mr. DeFrancesco agreed to a ban from servin