Bad memories rekindled for clients

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This article was published 11/6/2013 (1532 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Media reports a former Winnipeg stock broker is among hundreds of Canadians linked to a leaked database of offshore holdings has stirred up some bad memories for one of his former clients.

In the early 1990s, now-retired Winnipeg businessman Richard Burr invested $40,000 in a software company -- Technology Capital Corporation -- in which Bruce Macdonald Ransom and his father, Colin Wright Ransom, were shareholders and directors.

'He (Colin) said his son made some bad investments in Europe. That's all he would tell me. I wrote this off many years ago as a lesson learned. It was long forgotten'-- Businessman Richard Burr

Burr said over the next three years or so, he lost all but $4,000 of his investment. The Manitoba Securities Commission subsequently launched an investigation and commission documents show Bruce Ransom subsequently had his trader's licence suspended for 10 years for an assortment of Manitoba Securities Act violations that occurred over several years in the early 1990s, including conducting unauthorized trades, falsifying documents and providing false information to the MSC.

Burr said he never knew for sure what happened to his money.

"He (Colin) said his son made some bad investments in Europe. That's all he would tell me," Burr said. "I wrote this off many years ago as a lesson learned. It was long forgotten."

But now he wonders if some of his money ended up in one of three companies CBC News said Tuesday Bruce Ransom registered about a decade ago in the British Virgin Islands -- companies the broadcaster says are still registered there.

The CBC report said leaked documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists lists more than 120,000 offshore entities, including shell companies and trusts, involving 130,000 people from more than 170 countries.

It said the names of at least 450 Canadians, including Bruce Ransom, are included in the leaked documents.

It said that since leaving Winnipeg, Bruce Ransom has had addresses in British Columbia and New York. It interviewed a New York doctor who said she made a $200,000 investment with Ransom in 2007, and the money later vanished.

The CBC said it couldn't locate Bruce Ransom. It said it tracked down Colin Ransom in British Columbia, and he denied his son put any money in any offshore companies or did anything illegal.

A spokeswoman for the MSC said in an interview it appears the commission's last dealings with Bruce Ransom were in the late 1990s.

She said the commission has no plans to reopen the case unless additional information surfaces or a formal complaint is received that warrants further investigation.

-- staff