Backgrounder: Integrated Market Enforcement Team Program

In 2003, the Government of Canada created the Integrated Market Enforcement Team (IMET) program funding it under the stewardship of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The RCMP’s federal partners include Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), Public Safety Canada, Finance Canada, and Justice Canada.

The IMET program’s mission is to deter perpetrators of criminal capital markets fraud by ensuring that there is a genuine risk of being discovered, investigated, prosecuted and incarcerated. The IMET program’s mandate is threefold:

• Investigate serious Criminal Code capital markets fraud offences that are of regional or national significance and threaten investor confidence or economic stability in Canada;
• Work to ensure those who commit these offences are brought to justice in an effective and timely manner; and
• Collaborate with other law enforcement agencies and securities regulators to ensure that all complaints about market offences are addressed by the appropriate body.

Currently, the IMET program runs 10 investigative teams in four major Canadian financial centers with four teams in the Greater Toronto Area, and two teams each in Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal. The IMET branch office in Ottawa operates the Quick Start program which can  deploy IMET resources to an area not serviced directly by a one of the existing teams.

These teams include RCMP Regular Member investigators, RCMP Civilian Member investigative analysts, members seconded from various stakeholder agencies (including provincial securities regulators, Self-Regulating Organizations (SROs), and municipal and provincial police forces), counsel from the PPSC, forensic accountants, and support staff.

Each of the four cities has a Securities Intelligence Unit run with law enforcement and regulatory partners to conduct Canadian capital markets related intelligence activities, including uncovering criminal activities affecting the markets.

Externally, the IMETs work closely with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the United States Attorney General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and with international agencies.

Investigating capital market crime is complex, resource intensive and time-consuming. It requires forensic accounting and capital market expertise along with police-based techniques such as surveillance, execution of judicial authorizations.

The RCMP conducts criminal capital market enforcement activities involving specialized policing expertise, but it does not have an exclusive jurisdiction as every police force in Canada has the mandate to enforce the Criminal Code of Canada.  

The IMET program has charged 45 individuals with Criminal Code offences. Thirteen individuals have been convicted receiving sentences ranging from 18 months to 13 years. Six cases remain before the courts.