For nine years, while teaching accounting and investment analysis at University Canada West in Vancouver, holding a Chartered Professional Accountant license in British Columbia, and serving as CFO of publicly registered companies, George John Drazenovic, 54, of Burnaby, British Columbia, was simultaneously supplying the raw material that made two separate international penny stock fraud rings operational.
His contribution was specific and indispensable: he sourced mineral extraction and exploration rights, which the rings then installed as the marquee assets of the shell companies they used as pump-and-dump vehicles. Without a credible underlying asset, the promotional campaigns driving those stocks could not have functioned. Drazenovic provided that asset, collected secret proceeds from the stock sales during each ring’s promotional push, and did so across at least ten different penny stock issuers between April 2010 and October 2019. On February 24, 2026, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final judgment against him in Civil Action No. 1:25-cv-10492. On April 20, 2026, the SEC suspended him from appearing or practicing before it as an accountant.
The Two Rings Drazenovic Served and the Scope of What They Cost Investors
The SEC’s complaint identifies Drazenovic as having recklessly furthered the operations of two distinct pump-and-dump rings, both of which were already the subject of earlier SEC enforcement actions. One ring was led by Ronald Bauer, a Canadian-UK citizen who had already been sanctioned by the SEC in 2006 for a separate pump-and-dump scheme, paid $840,000 in disgorgement, and accepted a five-year ban from serving as a company officer or director — before returning to orchestrate what the SEC describes as a complex scheme spanning 2006 to 2020 that generated over $145 million from unlawful sales of at least 17 penny stocks. Bauer pleaded guilty to securities fraud in a parallel criminal case and was sentenced to 20 months in prison in May 2025, with a money judgment of $4,377,228.74 entered against him.
The other ring had Daniel Ferris among its principals. Ferris was named as a co-defendant in the criminal case against Bauer and remains subject to pending proceedings. Together, the two rings that Drazenovic’s mineral property sourcing enabled cost retail investors millions of dollars in losses across nearly a decade. Drazenovic was not a ring leader. He was something more architecturally important: the supplier whose professional credentials and access to real mining rights gave the entire operation a veneer of legitimacy that fabricated assets could not have provided.
How a CPA Became the Mineral Property Finder Who Made Shell Companies Credible
The pump-and-dump playbook requires a story. A shell company with no business and no assets cannot sustain a promotional campaign long enough for the orchestrators to unload their shares. The solution is to install a mineral property — a mining claim, an exploration right, a lithium prospect — as the company’s flagship asset and build the promotional narrative around it. The property does not need to produce anything. It needs to exist, to have a name, and to appear in the company’s filings. Drazenovic’s role was to find those properties and deliver them.
According to the SEC’s complaint, he served as mineral property finder for Blue Eagle Lithium Inc., Black Stallion Oil and Gas Inc., Virtus Oil and Gas Corp., Gray Fox Petroleum Corp., Bison Petroleum Corp., Great American Energy Inc., American Liberty Petroleum Corp., Gold American Mining Corp., and American Power Corp., among others — at least ten issuers in total. Each company’s promotional materials could then reference real mineral rights as the basis for the stock’s supposed value. The promoters coordinated misleading campaigns around those assets. Investors bought. The promoters dumped their shares into the inflated market. Drazenovic collected his compensation from the sale proceeds, on a covert basis, while the promotional campaign ran.
His CPA designation and his history as a CFO of SEC-registered companies — Sun Cal Energy Inc., Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Tornado Gold International Corp. — were not incidental to his value to the rings. A credentialed accountant with a record of serving as a public company officer could navigate SEC filing requirements, understand what made a property disclosure look legitimate, and lend the operation a professional patina that naked shell promoters could not manufacture themselves.
The University Chair Who Was Quietly Serving Two Fraud Operations at the Same Time
The gap between Drazenovic’s public profile and his covert activity is precise and documented. In 2021, University Canada West named him Chair of the Arts, Communications and Social Sciences Undergraduate Programs. He was a licensed accountant since 1998 and had been registered with the CPA body in British Columbia continuously through the period of his participation in the schemes. He taught accounting and investment analysis — the same disciplines whose rules he was quietly circumventing for two separate criminal networks operating across at least nine years.
When the SEC’s action became public following the December 18, 2025 complaint filing, UCW confirmed his departure. “George is no longer employed by University Canada West,” the university’s director of marketing and communications told theBreaker.news, adding no further comment. The CPA British Columbia website showed no disciplinary notices against Drazenovic at the time of reporting — a gap that the SEC’s administrative suspension, effective April 20, 2026, now closes on the American regulatory side. His CPA registration status in British Columbia remains a matter for the provincial body.
Drazenovic also ran unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party of Canada in the Burnaby-Douglas federal riding in 2004 and 2006 — years that overlap with the early years of Bauer’s first sanctioned pump-and-dump scheme, in which Bauer was already operating from a luxury Vancouver condominium and had already drawn the SEC’s attention.
What the Final Judgment Orders and What the SEC Administrative Suspension Adds
The final judgment entered February 24, 2026 in the Southern District of New York orders Drazenovic to pay disgorgement of $331,595 representing the ill-gotten gains he received from stock sales during his participation in the frauds, plus $51,050 in prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty of $236,451 — a combined financial obligation of $619,096. He is permanently enjoined from future violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5. He is permanently barred from participating in any offering of penny stock and prohibited from serving as an officer or director of any public company for three years.
The April 20, 2026 SEC administrative order, effective immediately, suspends Drazenovic from appearing or practicing before the SEC as an accountant under Rule 102(e)(3)(i). That suspension bars him from signing audit reports, financial statements, or any other submissions to the SEC in his capacity as a CPA — the precise professional function through which he provided the rings their credibility. The investigation that produced these outcomes was conducted with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the FBI, FINRA, the Alberta Securities Commission, and the British Columbia Securities Commission, reflecting the cross-border infrastructure that Drazenovic served.
Conclusion
George John Drazenovic did not lead either of the rings he served. He did not coordinate promotional campaigns, control offshore accounts, or direct share sales. What he did was more foundational: he provided the legitimate-looking mineral assets that allowed those operations to exist as investment stories rather than naked frauds. His CPA credentials, his CFO history with SEC-registered companies, and his academic position all reinforced the credibility of properties that functioned as props. He collected secret proceeds for nine years across two rings, taught his students how markets work, and consented to a judgment that treats his $331,595 in confirmed profits as the quantifiable floor of his contribution to schemes that cost retail investors millions.
Cases like this highlight how important robust oversight and research integrity are in academic environments. Across the sector, there have been growing concerns about issues such as publication practices, partnerships with questionable entities, and pressures related to enrollment growth. These are complex challenges, and continued transparency and independent scrutiny are essential to maintaining trust.