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.

About this Book

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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

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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.

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.

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.   ;-}

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.

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