In Century Services Inc. v. New World Engineering Corp., the Ontario Superior Court of Justice held that defendants – found liable for having bilked investors out of $20 million – could not claim contribution and indemnity from their lawyers and the lenders in their scheme. This, despite the fact that the Court concluded that the lenders – and at least a few of the solicitors involved – failed to carry out their due diligence responsibilities.
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The World Bank “Blacklist” – Canada tops the charts in 2013
Each year, the World Bank releases a list of firms and individuals deemed ineligible to be awarded a World Bank-financed contract due to the companies having been sanctioned under the Bank’s anti-fraud and corruption policy.
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Shift of criminal liability from boardroom to the factory floor
On August 9, 2013, the Quebec Superior Court signalled a fundamental change, if not a revolution, in the law of corporate criminal responsibility with the judgment of R. c. Petroles Global inc(“Global Fuels”). The
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Cybersecurity threats
Cybersecurity threats are evolving with ever-increasing levels of sophistication. In the wake of a series of high profile data breaches, US President Obama recently commented that the nation’s “economic prosperity in the 21st Century
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Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme alleged by SEC in lawsuit against Texas man
Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued a Texas man over claims he operated a Ponzi scheme involving Bitcoin, the virtual currency that has recently attracted investors including Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
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If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Financial Advisory services serves a very important function for many Canadians who do not have the time, skill or interest to manage their investment portfolios. Unfortunately, this proves to be dangerous where financial intermediaries go
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When would silence or non-disclosure of material facts amount to fraudulent misrepresentation?
In Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp v. Gray (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp v. Gray, 2013 ONSC 1986), the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (“CMHC”), the insurer of mortgages, attempted to block the release of a mortgage debt from a bankrupted individual who was a victim of a fraudulent scheme, but in CMCH’s view, was either aware of the scheme or that he was reckless and/or willfully blind to the scheme.
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Griffiths Energy comes clean with a voluntary disclosure about a foreign bribe
On January 25, 2013, Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Scott Brooker accepted a joint submission by the Crown and the lawyer of Griffiths Energy International Inc., a private, Calgary-based oil and gas company, on
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How should a Court divide a shortfall of money among victims of a Ponzi Scheme
Dividing up a shortfall from a Ponzi scheme was first posed before the United States Supreme Court in 1924. The infamous case of Cunningham v. Brown dealt with the original Ponzi scheme of Charles Ponzi and distributing remaining funds back to victims when his investment scheme was finally unravelled, but left victims with only a fraction of their original investments. Unraveling a Ponzi scheme to return a shortfall of money back among its victims is akin to untangling the noodles in a half-eaten bowl of spaghetti at a buffet and trying to determine who cooked each strand. Where multiple chefs (all using the same recipe) all had their spaghetti thrown in one giant pot, it would be a seemingly impossible task to untangle the half-eaten bowl to see which chefs’ spaghetti was still in that bowl.
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Red flags of a Ponzi Scheme
Charles Ponzi perpetrated the first notorious investment scheme in the early 1900s – after whom the investment scheme was named. Ponzi schemes share a basic feature and red flags usually exist which can help
investors
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