In a case that's becoming all-too-familiar in the hedge fund industry, the
The charges were field late last week in the
The case, which would be Canada's largest hedge fund scandal to date, is eerily familiar to the recent downfall of the U.S. hedge fund Bayou Management Group. In that case, executives at the Stamford, Conn.-based firm lied to investors about assets under management. When authorities finally came knocking, its founder, Samuel Israel III, was feared to have fled the country. Israel and his chief financial officer, Daniel Marino, have since turned themselves in and pleaded guilty to fraud.
But Manor left Canada for the Middle East earlier this month. Regulators say they're prepared to go ahead with a trial, whether or not he returns.
"If we are able to conduct a prosecution in his absence and, at the end of it a jail sentence were imposed, that sentence would come into effect any time he came into the country, whether voluntary or involuntary," said Michael Watson, the OSC's director of enforcement, in a report from the Toronto Star.
Manor, whose New Brunswick-registered firm had collected more than $800 million in assets from more than 25,000 clients both in Canada and abroad, could face upwards of five years in prison and up to $5 million in fines. Manor, a self-described mathematician with a passion for alternative investments, would face extradition only if the
