Key Figures- Featuring Ninepoint Partners (the former Sprott Asset Management), Admiral Gary Ng and the former CEO of OPTrust
You are probably aware that on Friday evening, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) appointed a receiver to take control of Bridging Finance, a private debt fund with a total asset value of $2 billion and a significant amount of retail money contributed by financial advisors. The following are prominent figures in this mess:
-Ninepoint Partners, which formerly operated under the name Sprott Asset Management. Prior to that, Ninepoint and Bridging Finance ran a fund together as a joint venture. After that, it found out that Bridging had been up to some shenanigans and threatened to sue them. Bridging has made the decision to pay Ninepoint $45 million to buy them out of their management interest in the fund.
The majority of this, unfortunately, was money that had been stolen. Even though Ninepoint most likely wasn’t aware that they were receiving dirty money, the fact that they were so closely associated with such a shady company does not help their reputation. Since Ninepoint frequently features Eric Nuttall on BNN, the company is not unfamiliar with errors in judgement.
-Gary Ng, also known as the recurring OPM Wire character Admiral Gary Ng, was given money to purchase Hong Kong real estate on credit; however, he instead used the money to purchase a stake in Bridging Finance itself. Gary Ng received a total of $100 million in loans from Bridging. I also found out that Blackrock provided Gary with a loan of $19.5 million. He produces so much work!
-It has been brought to my attention that during the summer of 2016, many financial institutions, including BMO and Scotia, prevented their financial advisors from purchasing Bridging funds. However, TD did not take this measure. Because of the well-established connections to Gary Ng, this story has been developing for some time. There are some financial advisors who are still left holding the bag. I was given some names; any other suggestions would be appreciated.
-Among the most important members of the Bridging Finance team are the husband-and-wife duo comprised of Natasha (CIO) and David Sharpe (CEO). Compliance was overseen by Andrew Mushore, and Graham Marr served as the organization’s president. Naturally, PwC is in charge of everything at this point.
David Sharpe was the most important person. His professional history isn’t particularly noteworthy, with the exception of the fact that he was once the Director of Investigations at the MFDA. Therefore, he was in an ideal position to understand how inappropriate some of this material is.
Such as when affiliates of a company to which Bridging Finance was lending money deposited $19.5 million in his personal account from Bridging Finance. In essence, the scheme consisted of the following steps: first, money from the fund was loaned to questionable borrowers; second, the owners of Bridging Finance were promised a portion of the money that was returned.
-There is a woman named Jenny Coco serving as a director at Bridging Finance at the moment. You may recognise her from her work on Coco Paving.
How the plan to buy Ninepoint’s stake actually worked is as follows:
-In December of 2020, the former chief executive officer of the pension fund OPTrust became the chair. Obviously not a member or subscriber.
Read more here.
