After a 17-year court battle, an Ontario judge has ruled in favour of retail investors who suffered losses as two Canadian companies had let big investors make profitable, improper trades in a number of their funds.
The class action includes any investors who held money in AIC funds from Jan. 1, 1999, to Sept. 30, 2003, or CI Mutual funds from Sept. 1, 1998, to Sept. 30, 2003. Counsel for the plaintiffs estimate damages to investors could total as much as $674-million. The mutual-fund market-timing scandal first exploded into view in 2003 in the United States when then-New York attorney-general Eliot Spitzer announced a settlement with Canary Capital, a small fund company. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the primary regulator of the U.S. fund industry, and various state officials then jumped in.
In 2006, investors launched a class-action lawsuit against all five companies that settled with the OSC, with retail clients alleging that this frequent trading diluted the returns of long-term investors in the funds. “For retail investors this is an important day for accountability, for behavior modification and to really send a signal to the wider investment industry that there will be consequences for conduct that does not meet the appropriate standard of care and where steps are not taken to appropriately protect unit holders,” said Joel Rochon, co- lead counsel for the plaintiff and managing partner at Rochon Genova LLP, in an interview.
Investment is nothing more than gambling and risk. There is no 'right' to invest at zero risk. Everything from external geopolitics to inflation can wipe out investments, not to mention the plethora of unethical if not illegal acts done by Banks & mutual funds. This is capitalism