Fair Advice Now!

Life Under the Inquiry

"Terminated".

My colleague was dumbfounded when he hung up the phone. He walked slowly back to his hospital bed and lay down.
When he slept he might have heard again the shouts of the rebels invading Freetwon in 1999- the sporadic gunfire startling condors into flight, and the flash of machetees.
Before the mad rampage was over, many of his friends were dismembered and his wife disappeared- kidnapped, perhaps lost forever.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw
the receding snowbanks of late April
outside his hospital window and knew he was safe in Canada. A refugee with his brother, mother and young daughter, Lily.
In a place of sanctuary. Far from the
maurading raids of the rebels who called themselves "liberators of the people" while they pillaged and robbed.
Or so he had thought until the phone rang.

My colleague had been able to use his experience working as accountant for the UN in his home country to land a job as an unlicensed office assistant at the Thunder Bay office of our investment dealer.
It was one of the coldest winters on record and the waits for the irregular bus service in 40 below weather chilled him literally to the bone. The cold was completely beyond his experience.

Soon his legs developed sores as the cold exacerbated an old complaint.
He was limping noticeably and colleagues at the office urged him to see a doctor. He finally got an appointment after Christmas. By then every step was agony.
The doctor ordered him hospitalized at once and told him he was in danger of losing the use of his legs.
By April he was responding well to treatment and well on the road to recovery. The doctor prescribed medications and bandages for use after his release. Only a fraction of the costs were covered by OHIP but he had his group benefits from the investment dealership.
Or so he thought.
Then came the telephone call from the insurance company. His benefits were terminated without notice.
On his salary my colleague knew the medications were now beyond reach. But would he have a salary ?
He knew there had been heated exchanged about a 5% commission cut between the dealer and me.

He went to visit his colleagues at the investment office near the hospital to find out what was happening. Everyone looked pale.

He learned that the office had just been raided.
"We had one Portus client" said a colleague. I had been temporarily terminated as well as the funds to run the office and pay salaries.
A company agent came in and went through all our books and records.Even personal effects. He took down the sign in the window and everything with the company logo. He went through all the desks and cupboards with the regional manager on the cordless phone talking in his ear.
Most of the stuff was our own property.

We called him to bring back some sign material which did not belong to the dealer. A furtative meeting was arranged in a parking lot. When the dealer's man opened his trunk to return the signage I saw he had all kinds of files in there too. Probably still has. There were some things about the former dealer's views of compliance and client confidentiality I never understood.

The termination without notice had included my colleagues benefits.
The phone calls and probing emails from the company's compliance department about the single Portus transaction had already been coming in almost daily when my colleague was hospitalized at the end of February. Now it is mid July!
Clients ask how long the situation will continue. No-one knows. The Ontario Securities Commission had stopped trading in the Portus hedge funds and some dealers had responded by terminating advisors dealing in the product directly with Portus. I had made the deal with an outside insurance company after consulting with the dealer.

My colleague had not dealt in the fund but his benefits were terminated too.

Almost six months have now passed and the regulators continue their investigation. Clients call daily to ask if the office will reopen.

No-one can answer their questions.

The protectors of the public interest continue to probe. There are rumors of firings of advisors at other dealers who made tens of thousands by selling Portus without telling their managers.

At our office there had only been one Portus sale producing $85 in commissions, made through an insurance dealer.

Someone from the OSC called a few weeks ago and asked questions about an ethical investment club I attend, links on my website, what I do in my part-time business and who I associate. The questioner said he would have news on the re-registration by June 14th. It sounded hopeful.

Instead there were more questions from the OSC about the site of an ethical investment group linked to the manager's main site. The site gave an account of the shareholders' initiative at Talisman Oil in cooperation with several church groups. That initiative had led Talisman to withdraw from the Sudan and cancel its royalties payments to the government which was complicit in the terrorizing and torture of tens of thousands of
non-adherents to the state religion in the Darfur. My colleague and I had covened meetings during RRSP season where we had spoken about abusive mining corporations.

The company had brought a fund manager to Thunder Bay who had praised the opportunities in companies like Talisman. and Phillip Morris. I had responded with an email questioning the wisdom of promoting companies profiting from genocide and disease. Might there be a public moral outcry against such a fund company leading to investor flight?

There was no direct response.

Then came a barrage of questions from the OSC about the socially responsible investing site.

A week has passed, then another- no news.

A staff member said he crossed the street when he saw a friend or client approaching. "Who wants to talk about being investigated?"

My colleague knows his food money for the family is running low. There were no new clothes for Rose to wear to school. His prescriptions remain unfilled. He cannot help recalling the time he was hiding from the rebels in Freetown.

The regulators continue their incessant probe across Ontario "in the public interest".

An agreement has been reached with a new dealer but the office stays closed.

I am unable to reopen the office as the OSC holds back registrations as the investigation continues.
Can this all be about one hedge fund transaction for $85?

At the office no-one knows when to schedule their vacations. A staff member has booked time with a stress therapist.

A New Canadian from Europe who works, part-time, recalls stories of political persecuting told by her parents.
"Perhaps there will be more questions?
More raids? Perhaps I should go back home? Leave the country for awhile?.

She was not kidding.

No-one knows when, or if, anyone can work again.

No-one knows when it will stop.


A Former Branch Manger

posted by Thunderer @ 1:11 PM