Restitution ordered in investment scheme

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This article was published 19/04/2023 (1080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba Securities Commission has ordered a man who was found to have misled two Christian charities as well as individuals into investing in a Bolivian bank to pay nearly $434,000 in restitution, costs and fees.

A commission decision issued in January states that South American savings-and-loan institution Mutual Guapay was facing liquidity problems when Youth for Christ’s Portage la Prairie branch, the Back to the Bible charity and individual investors agreed to invest between 2005 and 2010 at the behest of Jack Neufeld of the Jack Neufeld Family Charitable Foundation.

The individual investors put in nearly $772,000, while Back to the Bible invested $250,00, and Youth for Christ’s Portage la Prairie branch handed over $120,000. Neufeld, the commission found earlier, used his connections in the Christian community to gain the investors’ trust.

The January decision found Neufeld and his foundation violated the provincial Securities Act by making material misrepresentations to investors, acting contrary to the public interest and trading in securities without being registered and without a prospectus, which is a financial disclosure document.

The panel said Neufeld and his charity did not try to compensate the investors who lost out.

A decision released Tuesday states that Neufeld was found to have misled commission staff members during the investigation by providing false and incomplete information. He later provided implausible evidence about the investments and how they were lost during a hearing, the decision states.

A commission panel ordered Neufeld pay one of the private investors $250,000 and Youth for Christ $123,000, in addition to $35,000 to the securities commission for costs and a $25,000 administrative fee.

The former chairman of Back to the Bible had submitted a claim for his loss to the commission, but the panel decided he wasn’t entitled to it because Neufeld didn’t entice his investment, the panel said.

The commission banned Neufeld from being an officer or director of any organization that deals with securities for at least 10 years, and for any subsequent time he takes to pay the penalties.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera