Former Winnipeg financier linked to offshore companies

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This article was published 11/6/2013 (2447 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The name of Bruce Ransom, a former Winnipeg financier who bilked his clients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, has surfaced in leaked records of offshore companies and trusts.

The records were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and contain information over a 30-year period in 10 countries used as tax havens around the world such as the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.

A CBC report said there were at least 450 Canadians, including Ransom, in the records which included 130,000 people in over 170 countries. The files so far have exposed more than 120,000 offshore entities such as shell corporations and trusts. More names are to come as there is a total of 2.5 million records in the leak.

The CBC report stated Ransom had registered three companies in the British Virgin Islands a decade ago including Lider Group S.A. (incorporated March 25, 2003), Bond Energy Corporation (incorporated Dec. 3, 2003) and Lothian Energy Corporation (incorporated Aug. 26, 2004). Two of the companies listed people in addition to Ransom as directors.

It is not known whether investors will be able to find any money in the offshore companies.

Ransom had his trading licence twice suspended by the Manitoba Securities Commission in 1994-2004.