A Halifax investment adviser’s “reckless arrogance” cost clients more than $36 million in investments, says the lawyer who is representing 29 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the investment company.
“We will have to see what defence the defendants will come up with but I don’t think anyone would deny that our clients lost their shirts here and we say that is the responsibility of the defendants,” said Ian Gray, a partner in the Halifax law firm Walker, Dunlop.
Gray filed a lawsuit Monday in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court seeking more than $40 million in overall damages against investment adviser Fredrick Saturley, the High Tide Wealth Management company that he founded in 2010, and investment dealer National Bank Independent Network, the investment brokerage arm of National Bank of Canada.
Gray said his clients, primarily elderly Nova Scotia couples who were preparing for retirement or had already retired, invested tens of millions of dollars with Saturley and High Tide. The money was predominantly the life savings, retirement funds and planned inheritance of generally middle class and upper middle class individuals, Gray’s summary stated.
He said the greatest single family loss incurred was somewhere in the order of $8 million.
‘Risky investment strategy’
“Mr. Saturley has consistently pursued a very risky investment strategy,” Gray said at a news conference at the Lord Nelson Hotel in downtown Halifax.
In good times, pursuing the “strangle strategy,” can make a reasonable amount of money, Gray said. “but if the market takes a certain downtown, you are going to lose just about everything, as indeed our clients did.”
Gray described it as a strategy that requires a certain sophistication on the part of the investor and a stomach for losses, “a certain ability to bounce back from a catastrophic loss, which is precisely what our clients didn’t have.
“I have clients in their 60s, their 70s and in a couple of cases, their 80s. These are not the sort of people that I think anyone would advise to undertake risky, capital-intensive strategies in an attempt to make a killing. These are people who needed to play things safe and steady for retirement.
“But here is the important thing. That is what they thought they were doing. Mr. Saturley, our clients allege, said he would take care of them with conservative investments.”
All the while, he was independently going out and executing a very risky strategy and one that ultimately catastrophically exploded in his and his clients’ faces, Gray said.
Gray said Saturley and High Tide opened margin accounts in the names of his clients, which allowed it to trade on margin. The investment company purchased uncovered options and leveraged exchange traded funds, depositing them in clients’ accounts while the majority of clients were unaware of the high risks.
When the economy took a significant COVID-driven downturn in March, High Tide clients’ portfolios were quickly decimated. Not only did Gray’s clients lose entire life savings but in many cases they were left owing money, which had been borrowed without their knowledge or consent.
“Our clients were over-extended in a way that it should have been obvious that it was far too risky, the bank in our view acted precipitously and they didn’t have to do that. Mr. Saturley sets our clients up for the fall and the bank knocks them down.”
Ian Gray, lawyer
Eventually, despite some clients trying to satisfy hundreds of thousands of margin debts by deregistering RRSPs and obtaining lines of credit over a March weekend, National Bank Independent Network (NBIN) liquidated their assets.
Gray said no one could have predicted the economic downturn in March.
“But if you put someone in a very risky position where something going wrong will lead to catastrophe, eventually something will go wrong,” he said. “Our clients were over-extended in a way that it should have been obvious that it was far too risky, the bank in our view acted precipitously and they didn’t have to do that.
“Mr. Saturley sets our clients up for the fall and the bank knocks them down.”
NBIN was previously involved in the Knowledge House scandal, Nova Scotia’s last major investment case, and was ordered in 2015 to pay $3 million in punitive damages for its treatment of claimants.
Gray is also seeking punitive damages, court costs and interest, pushing the $36 million in losses to over $40 million in damages sought.
‘A catastrophe’
This is not Saturley’s first trouble with investments and unauthorized trading. He was fined $10,000, plus $5,000 in court costs, in 2004 while working for BMO Nesbitt Burns after a disciplinary hearing for unauthorized trading on multiple clients’ accounts. In 2008, Saturley’s clients with CIBC Wood Gundy lost millions of dollars as a result of a margin error. The investigation showed Saturley had engaged in unauthorized discretionary trading a second time. Still, he unsuccessfully contested his termination from Wood Gundy in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
“This was Mr. Saturley’s third bite at the cherry and once again, it was a catastrophe,” Gray said. “It is a problem that this person keeps coming back and running the same play and it keeps blowing up in his face.”
Gray said the industry has to take a harder look at people coming in rather than cleaning up after the fact.
“Should you get your licence back for having lost it for doing this and if you do get your licence back, what level of oversight are we going to impose on you,” Gray said.
He said the chief compliance officer of High Tide is Adrian Saturley, Fredrick’s son, which is “manifestly inappropriate.”
How is a son supposed to provide oversight of his father, who employs him, Gray asked.
Gray said he had considered but decided against including the regulating body, Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims civil fraud against Saturley and his company, negligence against both the bank and Saturley and claims regulatory discrepancies.
A complaint against Saturley has been filed with the Nova Scotia Securities Commission and a complaint against the bank has been launched with the IIROC, Gray said.
If the defendants choose to sit down and negotiate a resolution, things could move quickly but “the reality is it takes a very long time to get a complicated case through the civil justice system,” he said.
None of the allegations have been proven in court and if a trial is required, it probably would not be heard until 2023 or 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was higher in late-morning trading, helped by strength in energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets also moved up.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 34.91 points at 23,736.98.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 178.05 points at 41,800.13. The S&P 500 index was up 28.38 points at 5,661.47, while the Nasdaq composite was up 133.17 points at 17,725.30.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.56 cents US compared with 73.57 cents US on Monday.
The November crude oil contract was up 68 cents at US$69.70 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up three cents at US$2.40 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$7.80 at US$2,601.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.28 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets climbed to their best week of the year.
“It’s been almost a complete opposite or retracement of what we saw last week,” said Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist at IG Wealth Management.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
While last week saw a “healthy” pullback on weaker economic data, this week investors appeared to be buying the dip and hoping the central bank “comes to the rescue,” said Petursson.
Next week, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its key interest rate for the first time in several years after it significantly hiked it to fight inflation.
But the magnitude of that first cut has been the subject of debate, and the market appears split on whether the cut will be a quarter of a percentage point or a larger half-point reduction.
Petursson thinks it’s clear the smaller cut is coming. Economic data recently hasn’t been great, but it hasn’t been that bad either, he said — and inflation may have come down significantly, but it’s not defeated just yet.
“I think they’re going to be very steady,” he said, with one small cut at each of their three decisions scheduled for the rest of 2024, and more into 2025.
“I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency on the part of the Fed that they have to do something immediately.
A larger cut could also send the wrong message to the markets, added Petursson: that the Fed made a mistake in waiting this long to cut, or that it’s seeing concerning signs in the economy.
It would also be “counter to what they’ve signaled,” he said.
More important than the cut — other than the new tone it sets — will be what Fed chair Jerome Powell has to say, according to Petursson.
“That’s going to be more important than the size of the cut itself,” he said.
In Canada, where the central bank has already cut three times, Petursson expects two more before the year is through.
“Here, the labour situation is worse than what we see in the United States,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was down more than 200 points in late-morning trading, weighed down by losses in the technology, base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets also fell.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 239.24 points at 22,749.04.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 312.36 points at 40,443.39. The S&P 500 index was down 80.94 points at 5,422.47, while the Nasdaq composite was down 380.17 points at 16,747.49.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.80 cents US compared with 74.00 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down US$1.07 at US$68.08 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up less than a penny at US$2.26 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$2.10 at US$2,541.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was down four cents at US$4.10 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
