The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has charged Toronto lawyer Mitchell Finkelstein, formerly a partner at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, together with four others, with illegal insider trading and tipping.
Finkelstein is alleged to have provided the non-public information to his close friend, Paul Azeff, who shared the information with his CIBC World Markets coworker, Korin Bobrow. Based on this material, non-public information, Azeff and Bobrow traded in securities and also shared the confidential information with others. The profit from the related trades over four years is estimated to be close to $3 million.
The information that Finkelstein allegedly sought out and acquired came from transactions in which he was the lawyer for one of the parties, as well as from information he gleaned by searching Davies’ document management system. The matter is scheduled to be heard by the OSC on January 11, 2011.
Click here to review the Amended Statement of Allegations issued by the OSC.
Click here to view comments by FAIR Canada Executive Director, Ermanno Pascutto, given during a recent BNN interview.
Click here to view the Globe and Mail’s interview with Ilana Singer about illegal insider trading in the legal profession.
