Thursday, April 12, 2012

Thieves of Bay Street - a book by Bruce Livesey




Unfortunately, all of us had a hand in this book. Take a look at Bruce's web-site to look into the wide-spread financial regulation chaos we have all experienced. I was interviewed by Evan Solomon on Bruce's CBC News: Sunday about Norshield some years ago. Information on the Norshield Fraud is part of Bruce's latest book as are many other frightening examples of the poor state of Canada's Financial Regulation.


A news making exposé about why Canada's financial industry is a haven for fraud.

Beneath the veneer of stability that saw Canada's banking sector through the financial crash of 2008, investigative reporter Bruce Livesey has uncovered a rampant failure of epidemic proportions. Though no large financial institution has recently gone bust in this country, white-collar criminals, scam artists, Ponzi schemers and organized crime, from the Hells Angels to the Russian mafia, know that Canada is the place in the Western world to rip off investors. And the fraudsters do so with little fear of being caught and punished.

Thieves of Bay Street investigates Canada's biggest financial scandals of recent years. Readers will learn what banks do with investors' money and what happens when they lose it. They will meet the bogus investment gurus, the brokers who lose money with both reckless abandon and impunity, the bankers who squander money in toxic investments, the lawyers who protect them and the regulators who do nothing to keep them from doing it again. And most importantly, they'll meet the victims who are demanding that our vaunted banking sector finally come clean on its dirtiest secret.



About this Author

BRUCE LIVESEY is an award-winning investigative journalist. His writing has appeared in most major magazines and newspapers in Canada. He also has extensive experience as a television producer, working for the investigative unit of CBC TV's The National, the fifth estate and CBC News Sunday, as well as outside Canada for a co-production of PBS Frontline and the New York Times, Al Jazeera English and Al Gore's Current TV. He is a co-winner of a Dupont Award, one of the most prestigious US television awards, and has been nominated for 2 Geminis and 3 national magazine awards, winning in 2008. He lives and works in Toronto.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

KPMG Vote Results

The KPMG settlement has been overwhelmingly accepted by those that voted.
Almost 2/3 of the registered victims voted with 96% in favour. The total value of the funds held that voted in favour was also very high at 95%.

The details are found in this link

En francais, les resultants peut trouver ici.

Monday, March 5, 2012

February 29th, 2012 Olympus Univest, KPMG Meeting & Vote

Many have asked about information on last week's meeting.
There is little to report, but i will provide some points.

  • The outcome will be determined this first week of March and will be communicated to everyone by mail. I will post the results here when i receive them.
  • There were about 55 people present at the meeting. The turnout was quite disappointing, but the weather was poor and with the ability to submit votes electronically, it was not surprising.
  • Raymond Massi of RSM Richter spoke (along with Jean Fontaine of Stikeman Elliot) to summarize the key events...beginning in the spring of 2005.
  • Something near $200 million dollars were invested by almost 1500 retail clients. RSM Richter only has claims from people for $115 million. A claim is automatically registered for those who had at some point responded to RSM. Norshield had overvalued the fund by $300-400 million.
  • In total near $500 million in total was lost in the Olympus Univest / Norshield fraud.
  • RSM Richter has managed to have the investors considered as creditors who will all be recognized as a single class. This is beneficial to us.
  • Mr. Massi believes that the Norshield file will be closed in 12-18 months. At that time, he expects that investors will have received near 10% of their original investment.
  • The requirements for the vote were that over 50% of the total number of investors had to vote in favour and that 2/3 of the total value had to vote in favour.
  • Only investors could vote and the outcome of the vote is binding on all.
  • I thought that a most telling factor was that Mr. Massi estimated that the total net recovery estimated to be 6-7% thus far while the gross was twice that at 12%.

I hope the date was not significant.   ;-}

Friday, February 24, 2012

KPMG Settlement - What to do?

Documents from RSM Richter have been delivered (or should have been - they are linked from the previous post if you need them). We all have to decide how we wish to respond to the proposal from KPMG with RSM Richter. As you know, there is also a Class Action Lawsuit which has been filed against KPMG for what amounts to negligence in their duties as auditors in reviewing Norshield's financial statements.If the majority of Norshield Victims choose to support the KPMG settlement with RSM Richter, then the class action suit would be in jeopardy.

Lately, i have had very little time to devote to Norshield and I have spent it discussing issues with other Norshield victims. The original lawyer handling the two class action lawsuits was unable to continue his work. One particularly hard working victim has found, identified, interviewed and secured an excellent lawyer to take up the class action cases.

As you likely know, voting to accept the KPMG settlement with RSM means that the class action can not proceed. It is clear to me that the only reason KPMG is willing to settle is because they know they would suffer a much larger loss if the class action suit proceeded. Reaching a settlement with RSM Richter is the lesser evil for a guilty KPMG.

If you have not already submitted your response to RSM, you must do so before Tuesday, February 28th at 5:00 pm Eastern time.

Vote in support of what you feel is right.

I know you are interested in the RBC Class Action Lawsuit. This is not affected by the KPMG proposal. Initial feedback by selected law firms showed that they felt there is merit in pursuing this case. 


If you choose to attend the Meeting on February 29th, come and introduce yourself as i will be promoting the web site outside the meeting so that Norshield victims have a means of sharing information and a way of communicating with each other.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Documents for the KPMG "Compromise" with RSM over Norshield's Olympus Funds

Many people have written me indicating that they have not yet received documents or that they fear that they are not registered. I am including links to documents for Proven and Unproven claims in both French and English to attempt to ensure everyone can participate.


English:
Proven Claim Creditors
Unproven Claim Creditors

All Norshield documents


Francais:
Réclamation Prouvée
Pas de Réclamation Prouvée

Toutes les documents Norshield

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

NO to a $7.5 million Settlement Proposal from RSM Richter & KPMG

All investors should have received the following correspondence from RSM Richter.
TO THE CREDITORS OF OLYMPUS UNITED FUNDS CORPORATION "OUFC"

Time for another insult to victims of the Norshield disaster. After over six-years of investigations and reports comes a pathetic offer from RSM Richter (and Stikeman Elliot, lawyers representing investors). They have negotiated a settlement with KPMG, who were the auditors of Norshield, to obtain $7.5 million dollars. KPMG is admitting no wrong-doing, but will give $7.5 million - as a donation?
Of course, there is a catch.
If the investors (we are creditors too) accept this deal, then there must be a "full release" of KPMG and parties related thereto (what does that even mean?). It certainly does mean that KPMG, the auditors whose responsibility it was to confirm that Norshield's claims were correct and accurate, can not be made accountable and can not be sued. In other words, the Class Action Lawsuit can not identify KPMG or Olympus (Norshield) as responsible. It was KPMG that was supposed to confirm Norshield was not lying. How can KPMG not be responsible? If you accept the RSM offer, no legal fault can be directed at KPMG.

Just to make it painfully clear, remember that all fund companies (including Norshield) provide their own fund values to investors; these are the Net Asset Value numbers or NAVs we see on statements. It tells us how much each unit we bought is worth. Because the fund companies themselves provide these assessments, it is crucial that someone check to make sure they haven't made a mistake. Perhaps it would be wise to make sure the fund companies are not lying and have not simply made up the valuation numbers. This is why auditors are required to go into all public companies yearly. The purpose is to make investors (the general public) comfortable that experts have reviewed the claims of a company because investors are not accounting experts or financial experts. The audited financial statement from a major organization such as KPMG is the seal of approval for investors to be comfortable and confident.

At this time, the only thing I'm comfortable and confident of is that KPMG was irresponsible and incompetent in auditing Norshield. KPMG clearly did not do what they were supposed to do. For almost 15 years, there may have been practices carried out at Norshield that allowed them to cheat, steal and lie. After all, Norshield did make almost $500 million dollars disappear. As the Ontario Securities Commission stated, "the NAVs were artificially inflated". In other words, Norshield completely lied about how much investments were worth. KPMG conducted their yearly audits and happily told the world that all was well at Norshield; Norshield was following accepted practices for honest financial accounting according to GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles that all audit firms follow) and the public could rest assured that they were getting honest financial information from Norshield.

By accepting the proposal that RSM Richter has sent out and by accepting the $7.5 million settlement, investors can not continue any class action suits naming KPMG or OUFC. Remember that $7.5 million is less than 5% of the money individuals invested into Norshield (assuming that $159 million is the correct total - 16th Receiver's report, page 6, paragraph 17). Be aware that the $7.5 million is for all creditors: this includes unpaid suppliers, employees owed salaries or vacation pay, and any other company or person owed money.
You would receive much less than 5 cents for each dollar you invested or are owed.


Is a Class Action Lawsuit likely to get any money at all? No one knows for certain. You will soon have a chance to make your opinion heard.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Here's Johnny! Quebec Police get their final man in the Cinar fraud scandal.

According to the Globe and Mail, "John Xanthoudakis was arrested Tuesday morning at Montreal’s Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport, where he arrived on a flight from Bermuda.
"Mr. Xanthoudakis is the suspected mastermind behind the alleged fraud involving the animation company, which has been at the centre of a 10-year police investigation."

The Globe and Mail article goes on to infer some shocking ties between Cinar, Xanthoudakis, the Norshield funds and Montreal's Mafia.



Friday, March 11, 2011

Where's Johnny?

John Xanthoudakis, if nothing else, is consistent.
First, he managed to hide millions of dollars and he got countless people to search in vain to find them. Now he has managed to hide himself so that Sûreté du Québec are searching for him while they have managed to arrest three of the other four charged in this fraud. 

According to the Montreal Gazette,
On Wednesday, SQ Sgt. Martine Isabelle said one of the men had fled the country, 
but wouldn't say which one. Xanthoudakis is believed to have a residence in Greece.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/still+sought+Cinar+scandal/4381849/story.html

Also according to the Montreal Gazette,
Weinberg was arrested at Trudeau Airport Thursday night when he returned from the Dominican Republic. Already arraigned are Richmond Hill, Ont., resident Hasanain Panju, 44, Cinar’s former chief financial officer, and Lino Matteo, 48, former president of Mount Real. Police are searching for Norshield president John Xanthoudakis, 52.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Weinberg+charged+with+fraud+released/4420230/story.html

To summarize; the police said that one man has fled the country and that Xanthoudakis may have a residence in Greece. He is the only one who has not been arrested. Remember that much of the millions of dollars that disappeared has never been found. Now think, residence in Greece. Heeeeeeeere's Johnny.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Norshield back in the News - Warrant for John Xanthoudakis' arrest - Fraud Charges pending

Although there is no immediate benefit to investors of Norshield, it is also of no surprise to see that John Xanthoudakis has been charged with fraud in connection with Cinar and Norshield. It appears that four men in total have been charged with fraud, two from the Cinar corporation, Xanthoudakis from Norshield and Lino Pasquale Matteo of the Mount Real, yet another Canadian fraudulent fund in which 1,600 clients were defrauded of $130 million dollars.

The charges relate to misappropriation of $120 million dollars of the Cinar Corporation's funds which were invested for the personal profit of then CEO & CFO. The allegation is that Xanthoudakis helped to invest the funds in the Bahamas while Matteo helped to hide the investments. The warrant lists 36 criminal charges including fraud, forgery, and use of a false prospectus.

Some irony in this story is that the AMF (Quebec's securities commission) had earlier fined both of Cinar's CEO &CFO $1 million for these illegal actions. Why didn't they uncover more info? Why didn't they move on criminal proceedings? Did the $1 million each ever get paid?

Here are the links to the news stories.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/headline_news/article.jsp?content=b6120293

http://www.globaltoronto.com/arrests+million+fraud+charges+Cinar+Corp/4373234/story.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/quebec-police-seek-cinar-founder-in-decade-old-case-that-brought-down-animator/article1927243/

http://money.canoe.ca/money/business/canada/archives/2011/03/20110302-161910.html

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110302/mtl_cinar_110302/20110302/?hub=MontrealHome

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Arrest+made+Cinar+Norshield+fraud+scandal/4373094/story.html

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/breakingnews/quebec-police-issue-arrest-warrant-for-cinar-founder-ronald-weinberg-117264608.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cinar-ceo-hasanain-panju-arrested-163383

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

OSC Penalizes Norshield Executives - Hardly

You have just dropped off your children to a well established boarding school which is sanctioned and approved by the government. They have an established record over many years. You receive report cards and regular updates. Your children are doing well and getting above average marks. Near the end of the term, you read in the newspaper that the boarding school no longer knows where the children are.
Not yours. 
Not anyone else's. 
Almost every child has disappeared.


You are grief stricken. There has been a government inquiry. It turns out that the three people who ran the school lied. They were not teaching the children at all. They were not taking care of them. They were not protecting them from harm. The school has no idea where the children are or where the children were. The government concludes that the three leaders knowingly misled every single parent and jeopardized the safety of the children.
The three leaders of the school violated the trust of the parents.
The three leaders of the school destroyed the future of every parent. All the years of love and sacrifice each parent gave for their child was lost.

The three who ran the school (and knowingly cheated the children, the parents, and the government) were found to be guilty. 
They will not be jailed. 
They will not have a criminal record. 
They were fined significantly - over a million dollars for the two leaders. 
They don't have to pay though.
They will not be allowed to run another school.

1900 families.
1900 family futures.

This is not a real story.

Here is a summary of the real story. The OSC found the three leaders of Norshield to have misled the public and two of them "knew that the net asset values (“NAVs”) for funds in the Norshield Investment Structure were artificially inflated" (pg. 17, Section [78] (a)). John Xanthoudakis and Dale Smith were asked to pay over $1 million in fines. After all, they lost almost $500 million for almost 2000 individual investors and countless others affected by the corporations (pension funds, cities, companies) that invested over $300 million of the $500 million lost. Below is some coverage from the Canadian Press.



The original Ontario Securities Commission documents:


The sanctions that were imposed on the guilty three. 
HTML version    PDF version

The detailed accusations, reasons and decisions.
HTML version    PDF version

Friday, June 11, 2010

The way it is in the USA. The way it isn't here in Canada!

It is so frustrating to see inaction here in Canada and even more so when we see the contrast to actions in the USA. Remind our politicians that their promises have yet to be realized as actions.
The latest example is one where the mastermind of a Ponzi scheme in Florida which defrauded investors of over 1 billion dollars was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
The article "Florida Ponzi mastermind gets 50-year sentence" highlights the similarities between Scott Rothstein and Norshield's John Xanthoudakis and the two fraudulent investment schemes. When it comes to consequences for the two crooks, the similarities cease.
Rothstein's scheme only started operating in 2005. In five short years, he has been caught, tried and convicted. Xanthoudakis' Norshield Asset Management (NAM) organization was shut down by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) in 2005 after it ran for over 10 years. It took five long years for the OSC to conclude that there was wrong-doing at NAM and that Xanthoudakis was behind it. There are no charges laid, there are no criminal charges pending. Johnny X (Xanthoudakis) has apparently opened a million-dollar restaurant in the Bahamas.
Welcome to white-collar crime in Canada, or perhaps what is being implicitly stated is "Welcome, white-collar crime to Canada!"

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Auditing: Trust or Frustration, but where is the Retribution? When will Justice come?

It is so frustrating to read this article from the Bahama Tribune wherein even the "trusted" auditor from the Bahamas (from a "reputable" firm, Grant & Thornton) didn't have any faith in his own work! The title says it all "Auditor had 'no confidence' in failed $440m fund's value".  Or does it? How can it be that there is no criminal investigation yet for any aspect of this Norshield debacle? Where is the retribution, the penance, the castigation? When will there be justice?

A follow-up ("Bahamian fund audit sign-off is seyed[sic] again") to the original article seems to indicate that Paul Gomez, the Bahamian auditor, was forced to accept potentially fallacious information because his firm was not permitted to audit other funds in the Olympus Univest Investment Fund's structure. The overall audit was conducted by a Canadian accounting firm (we believe that to be KPMG) selected by the Fund's manager. Regardless of the avoidance of responsibility, why did the auditor or the audit firm wait to be interviewed to raise this issue? The matter dates back to December of 2001! RSM Richter, the receiver, has indicated that the Bahamian Channel Funds played a key role in the collapse of Olympus and "were overstated by at least $200 million in 2002 and $300 million in 2003, an overstatement of approximately 88 per-cent in 2003."

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Norshield key personnel perhaps insane?

Scot Blythe has covered Norshield issues in the Advisor.ca online magazine since trading of Olympus Funds was stopped and I'm certain long before that as well. His latest article summarizes the OSC findings brilliantly. Here are some highlights:
  • $472 million in total was invested into Norshield Asset Management.
  • The five year inquiry by RSM Richter will halve the money that can be recovered by investors.
  • The efforts by RSM have provided no further information into where money went in the Caribbean.
  • RSM Richter has launched a civil case against John Xanthoudakis & Dale Smith for $159 million.
  • RSM Richter has offered to cooperate should there be criminal proceedings.
One ironic closing statement is the following "Xanthoudakis & Smith argue that claims should be thrown out due to the length of time that has passed." It took them 10 years to lose the money, five years to investigate the fiasco they created, but a lifetime for their victims to toil and now suffer. What gall! Perhaps the two of them are insane?

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

OSC Finds Key Norshield Asset Management Personnel Misled Investors

After almost five years of investigation, the OSC has concluded that CEO John Xanthoudakis, President Dale Smith, and Chief Advisor Peter Kefalis misled investors while they lost $159 million dollars for 1900 retail investors in Canada.

This is really of no surprise to anyone. The real question is, will there be any criminal charges against these three crooks?

Other media that covered the story:

OSC finds wrongdoing in Norshield Hedge Fund Affair - Morningstar
Norshield trio breached security laws: OSC - Montreal Gazette
OSC rules Norshield hedge fund misled investors - Globe and Mail
Many questions remain unanswered in Norshield saga - Montreal Gazette
OSC finds wrongdoing in Norshield hedge-fund affair - Toronto Star
Affaire Norshield: une vaste tromperie, conclut la CVMO - la Presse - Montreal

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Canada, world class Olympics, world class athletes. Investor protection: world class embarassment

Having been overwhelmed by the outstanding Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, we can see how capable Canadians are and how proud we can be of Canada. Turning to investor protection and the prosecution of white collar criminals reveals a secret that appears to be something that is not being addressed.

To begin, take some specific information presented on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Sunday News show which aired November 23, 2008.

$700,528 salary and compensation for David Wilson, head of the OSC, 2007
2 the number of criminal prosecutions for securities fraud in Canada for 2002 - 2007
$158,500 salary and compensation for David Cox, head of the SEC, 2007
1,236 the number of criminal prosecutions for securities fraud in the US for 2002 - 2007
17x How much larger the average fine is for securities fraud in the US compared to the comparable fines levied in Canada
The numbers become even more embarassing to think that the SEC is responsible for 300 million Americans while the OSC isn't even responsible for 30 million Canadians. Furthermore, with a salary that is over 4 times that of his US counterpart, David Wilson remains at the helm of the OSC. I recall no outcry, no disgust, no media frenzy -- now we really know we are in Canada.

Looking now at what our criminals face, Earl Jones received a sentence for 11 years, but may be out in 2 years. The blatantly guilty Garth Drabinsky and his henchman Myron Gottlieb have spent something like 6 hours in jail thus far and it appears that it will be some time before will waste more taxpayer's money in an attempt to stay out of jail.

How do we remove these ugly examples of Canada's attitude towards these criminals and make Canadian's proud on the world stage in financial justice?

Monday, February 22, 2010

RSM RIchter - Norshield Bankruptcy Trustee - Reports sealed from public

It is very surprising to search the findings of the trustee investigating Norshield as there are regular reports available. At least, there should be. In fact, thirteen reports were supposedly written. However, seven of the thirteen reports noted on the bankruptcy/restructuring trustee (RSM Richter) website are unavailable and all are presumed to be sealed from the public by request to (and then of) the courts. (I say presumed because there is no indication of the whereabouts of many of the reports.) The first example of a sealed report was from May of 2006, almost 4 years ago.
"The court has ordered the fourth report sealed from the public because it contains sensitive confidential information about the company in which the investment was made."
Isn't the precise mandate of the trustee to uncover sensitive confidential information about the company in which the public invested its money? Why are these results hidden? The claim is that the reports are sealed because they contained some information which must remain confidential to preserve the success of the investigation and/or because some key information lies within the report that is critical to a criminal investigation. Since the documents are permanently sealed with no intent of making them public, the information must be criminal. Since the trustees are being paid from the meagre remaining funds of Norshield, the investors' money, these funds will never reach the investors.
Why is investors money being used to obtain information which is sealed from these investors?
Why is the investors' money funding the search for criminal information?
Most importantly, why have no criminal charges been laid after almost five years?

The following is a chronology of the reports of RSM Richter, the appointed trustee for Norshield
  1. July 12, 2005: First Report - a summarized version
  2. November 15, 2005: Second Report 
  3. February 2, 2006: Third Report - administrative issues
  4. May 30, 2006: "The Fourth Report contains certain proprietary and confidential information regarding the company's business and financial affairs..." - Court order this report sealed from the public record.
  5. October 12, 2006: "The Fifth Report ... contains confidential information regarding the Reciever's realization efforts ... [and] remains under a protective order of the Ontario Court."
  6. March 6, 2007: Sixth Report - comprehensive report regarding receivers activities since the Second Report.
  7. ??: Seventh Report - unknown - no information on RSM website
  8. July 17, 2007: Eighth Report
  9.  ??: Ninth Report - unknown - no information on RSM website
  10.  ??: Tenth Report - unknown - no information on RSM website
  11.  ??:  Eleventh Report - unknown - no information on RSM website
  12.  ??: Twelfth Report - unknown - no information on RSM website
  13. December 17, 2009: Thirteenth Report -

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Norshield Victims Sites Officially Launched with News Release

The following News Release was made available today.


News Release from Norshield Victims – Victims of the alleged Norshield Hedge Fund Fraud

Toronto, Canada, February 16, 2010 -  What do you do when almost five years have passed, you have seen little progress from organizations who are supposed to be investigating an allegedly fraudulent hedge fund company called Norshield Asset Management and you have received no help from the organizations that are supposed to help protect Canadian investors?
Help!

I am asking all 1900 investors in Norshield products to contact me by e-mail at:
so that we can unite to combine our knowledge and effort in seeking justice. Institutional investors are also welcome. The intent is to have all victims step forward in order to create an accurate and complete contact list for the dissemination of information. I invite victims to join to obtain information about the Norshield class action lawsuit I recently learned of and to find out how we can all help to make this a success.

Joey Davis of the Earl Jones Victims Organizing Committee and the Be Strong Movement (www.BeStrongFoundation.org) has provided these words for the victims of Norshield, "By working together, all victims can achieve great success from a grass roots movement. Never give up hope that justice & restitution for the victims is possible, no matter how long that may take."

My name is Chris Ouslis and I am an investor in the Norshield funds. I have watched since May 20, 2005 when the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) suspended trading of the funds after finding improprieties. In the intervening years, little information has come to me and I remain unaware of others who have been affected as my family and I have. We have all seen people like Joey Davis and the victims of Earl Jones achieve great success by working together. I have been inspired to follow their example.

There are now social networking pages established as Norshield Victims for victims of the alleged Norshield fraud at:
Facebook.com
LinkedIn.com
and there is a blog web page which can be viewed at:
where everyone can find information and links.

I ask the media to assist me in reviving this travesty of Canadian Justice. $500 million dollars has been lost in this potential Ponzi scheme operated by John Xanthoudakis, who remains free and against whom no criminal charges have been laid after almost 5 years of investigations. By comparison, the $50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme hedge fund operated by Bernard Madoff in the USA has seen justice meted out. Madoff’s fraud was discovered after Norshield and Madoff has been sentenced while criminal charges have not even been leveled against Xanthoudakis here in Canada.

Stan Buell, founder and President of the Small Investor’s Protection Agency (www.sipa.ca), supports Norshield victims and believes that, "It is outrageous that regulators fail to protect investors and leave it up to citizen groups to seek justice on their own. This is yet another example of the regulatory/self-regulatory disregard for investor protection."

Friday, February 12, 2010

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Royally #*%$@ing Investing Public?

Judging by the latest class action lawsuit from victims of Earl Jones, it seems that the RBC philosophy is greedy and sloppy. Electronic memos indicate that RBC was aware that Earl Jones was improperly using funds in his accounts.

This greed and inattention appears to be a company philosophy as a similar approach was followed when RBC lent $300 million to Norshield. As an investor in (victim of) Norshield, it surprises me to believe that RBC would have lent such a sum without conducting due diligence to ensure that the firm was not a potentially fraudulent organization. If i were an RBC shareholder, i would be shocked to see that the RBC was so cavalier in its practices that it would lend such a sum to a potentially fraudulent organization. From any perspective, it comes as no surprise that there is another class action lawsuit from the victims of Norshield Financial Group against the RBC. The Royal Bank seems to have trouble keeping track of its own staff as they are suing two of their Dominion Securities' brokers for questionable offshore dealings including Norshield.

One can not help but wonder how many other lawsuits are filed against the RBC for similar practices. The bigger wonder is how many such situations remain undetected...even now.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

What is this Norshield Asset Management Mess about?


Norshield was the parent company overseeing a "conservative" hedge fund called the Olympus family. The OSC suspended Norshield from trading the funds on May 26, 2005. At that time there was almost CDN$500 million in the fund. There were approximately 1900 retail investors (like you and me) who had invested anywhere from CDN$132 million to CDN$215 million, depending on which article you read. Institutions also invested in Norshield, "Several pension funds for Quebec cities, including Laval and Sherbrooke" were included. These corporate investors directed over CDN$350 million into Norshield. Who knows how many people have been affected indirectly?

It has been almost five years since the OSC suspended Norshield. A trustee in bankruptcy has been appointed - RSM Richter

Nothing has yet been done for investors.

In this hedge fund scandal, wherein $500 million dollars has been lost to what may have been a Ponzi-like scheme, the largest such alleged fraud in Canada, nothing has been settled financially or criminally after five years. In the interim, the $50 billion dollar Bernard Madoff hedge fund fraud has been identified and its perpetrator has already been tried and jailed.
This makes us look like bumbling Canadians while the US discovers a fraud and metes out justice in a fraction of the time.