Justice ends charges against ex-Amaya CEO

Former CEO of Amaya Gaming, David Baazov, is no longer being charged for inside trading information.

Canada.- Court of Quebec Judge Salvatore Mascia ruled this week in favour of former CEO of Amaya Gaming, David Baazov, in the case where the executive was investigated over its work in Amaya regarding insider trading at the company. The Judge argued the Québec securities regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) had set inept prosecution process.

The businessman left Amaya’s leadership after the AMF started investigating him for an insider trading case. This investigation involved Amaya’s purchase of the Rational Group (owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt) and was the largest insider trading inquiry in Canadian history. Baazov will stand trial next November and will also face fraud charges in a case that might last for more than four months and will involve 50 witnesses.

“In a two-hour oral ruling on Wednesday, Mascia said the AMF’s repeated errors showed a lack of rigour and that the “accumulation of mistakes requires a stay of proceedings.” The AMF issued a statement expressing disappointment with the outcome and saying it would be studying Mascia’s ruling and assessing the pertinence of filing an appeal,” reported Calvin Ayre yesterday.

According to the investigation, Baazov had allegedly traded company stock with two other employees before Amaya bought the Rational Group for a record US$4.9 billion in 2014. He also had plans to take the business private but failed to do so as questionable financial backing of the offer forced him to back off three years later.