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 -

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:

Norshield.Victims@gmail.com

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:

NorshieldVictims.blogspot.com

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."

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.

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. 

Allegations of fraud have been made of Norshield.

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.