Avtar Dhillon Traveled to Vancouver For Covert Cash Pickups, Funneled Illicit Proceeds Through Daughter’s Autism Provider: U.S. Court Records

BOSTON, Mass — After conspiring with a group of Canadian businessmen to manipulate the price of a marijuana company and then dump shares on unsuspecting U.S. investors, Dr. Avtar Singh Dhillon, a politically connected Sikh community leader, met an associate of the notorious West Vancouver lawyer Fred Sharp in a Vancouver restaurant to collect $30,000 cash, handed over in a paper bag.

The gritty exchange was just one of the covert methods Dr. Dhillon used to hide ill-gotten gains, including receiving payments to his daughter’s autism treatment provider, and stashing funds in an offshore account in Singapore.

His travels from California to his former home city of Vancouver, where he received packages of cash in handoffs orchestrated by Fred Sharp’s alleged partner Paul Sexton, vividly illustrate the lengths to which the conspirators went to conceal their operations. According to Dhillon’s testimony as a cooperating witness, Sharp’s group would merge private companies run by hidden Vancouver investors into publicly traded companies, hire writers to fraudulently tout the companies in order to pump up prices, then sell shares to everyday investors—who were left holding deflated assets when paid stock shills stopped issuing glowing press releases. Afterward, the conspirators laundered their proceeds.

During his testimony, Dhillon described one exchange: “Once those shares were sold, I was in communication with Mr. Sexton about receiving some of the funds, and Mr. Sexton offered and said, ‘Would you like to receive them in cash?’ And I said, ‘Certainly.’”

Elaborating further, he said, “Mr. Sexton personally delivered cash to me, um—usually at a restaurant.” When asked why he preferred cash, Dhillon was candid: “To hide it, um, you know, to be able to not have to disclose where that money came from.” This payment was part of a sprawling stock-fraud scheme allegedly tied to cannabis and biotech firms, shell entities, and a network of shadowy control groups.

Dhillon and Sharp’s broader network of clandestine financial maneuvers forms part of what U.S. regulators have characterized as a sweeping $1-billion stock manipulation conspiracy targeting U.S. investors. The scheme, anchored by Fred Sharp’s network of offshore shell companies and encrypted communications systems, allegedly enabled Dhillon and his associates to siphon funds from duped investors while shielding the true beneficiaries from scrutiny.

This testimony was offered during a September 2023 jury trial in Boston, in the case Securities and Exchange Commission v. Frederick L. Sharp, et al.

Dhillon, a British Columbia-educated physician turned cannabis entrepreneur, has since been convicted, mitigating his sentence as a key witness in the SEC’s fraud case against Sharp and his co-defendants. During his testimony in that Boston proceeding, Dhillon revealed the inner workings of the “Sharp Group,” a collective of Canadian businessmen well-connected to elite international securities lawyers.

Justin Trudeau poses with one of Avtar Dhillon’s nieces in a social media post.

Dhillon acknowledged that many lawyers were involved in drafting share registrations for himself and the Sharp parties, particularly in a share registration transaction for one of their marijuana companies. In that deal, Dhillon referenced Greenberg Traurig, which has offices across the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

“It’s true that Greenberg Traurig is a big law firm, correct?” Dhillon was asked in Boston.

“Right.”

“Which undoubtedly received a whole bunch of money in connection with these deals, correct?” “Yes, they got paid for their services.”

The Boston case sheds a harsh light on the legal and corporate networks in Vancouver that facilitated Dhillon and Sharp’s schemes, according to allegations from former marijuana grower Kris Kallu, who claims involvement with Dhillon and his estranged brother, convicted heroin trafficker Yad Kallu, in connection with Emerald Health Sciences. In a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 31, Kallu is suing his cousin, Avtar Dhillon, along with Dhillon’s former company, Emerald Health Sciences, and Sharp. Kallu alleges that they “are the true, direct or indirect controllers of EHS,” adding that “Sharp and [Avtar Dhillon] have been close business associates for many years.”

Kallu’s filings allege that individuals facing fraud charges in U.S. government allegations—such as Paul Sexton and Graham Taylor—were among Emerald Health’s early investors. In his filing, Kallu contends that the company cheated him out of his shares and acted as a “conduit for undisclosed payments” to favored shareholders—some of whom, he claims, are tied to an alleged US$1-billion stock fraud scheme.

Kallu’s filings indicate EHS had more than 200 shareholders listed on its confidential register, maintained by prominent Canadian law firm Bennett Jones, and further allege that entries in the central securities register appeared to be backdated.

In a revealing September 2021 email to another Dhillon family member—supporting his claim that some of the same players were Emerald Health investors—Kallu’s affidavit shows he wrote:

“I find it very alarming as the key players that are being charged with fraud, money laundering, etc. are also invested in Emerald Health Sciences. I am curious how these investors were provided the opportunity to invest, given this is a private cannabis company and all investors were handpicked.”

Bennett Jones has not responded to repeated questions from The Bureau.