In the 1990s, Fortune Financial Management Corp managed more than $7-billion in client assets and was once one of Canada’s largest financial planning companies. Its founder, David Singh, a money manager and personal finance author, has been sentenced to a 3.5-year prison term. Additionally, he was ordered to pay more than $4.8 Mio in restitution payments. Ontario Justice Mara Greene found that Singh had defrauded dozens of investors who were told their money would be used to fund residential mortgages. Singh sold Fortune to Dundee Wealth Management in 1999.
The criminal case was brought by the Canadian regulator Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), which opted to try Singh in court rather than before one of its adjudicative panels, which are less punitive and do not have the power to issue jail sentences. The OSC alleged that two mortgage investment corporations founded by David Singh – Rockfort Mortgage Investment Corp. and Greenview Capital Mortgage Investment Corp. – raised about $5.6-million from 77 investors between 2014 and 2018 and that some of the funds went toward private-school tuition for Singh’s children, a sports car, and to pay back other investors.
Singh was convicted of three offenses under the Ontario Securities Act:
- securities fraud,
- trading securities without registration, and
- trading securities without issuing a prospectus.
In the late 1990s, OSC launched an investigation into Fortune’s star salesman, Paul Tindall, who was accused of selling unsuitable investments to clients. The OSC then turned its sights on David Singh, alleging he had failed to supervise Tindall properly. Both men reached a settlement with the commission and received temporary trading bans back then.
