The most serious criminal act, committed by Leon Frazer Director, William "Bill" Tynkaluk, was his delivery of bogus tax advice, to LF clients who were non-residents of Canada. He advised them that Revenue Canada would soon be implementing regulations, wherein they would be taxed upon all their accounts held in Canada. Existing Canadian regulations exempted non-resident Canadians from paying tax upon their income.
This "advice" was, of course, completely untrue, and a misstatement of material fact; there was no such tax regulation or law, planned, proposed, or set to become law, but the net effect was that a large number of expat clients, estimated in excess of sixty, all agreed to follow William (Bill) Tynkaluk's recommendation, and to transfer their cash deposits to Dundee Merchant Bank, a brass plate bank, located in the Cayman Islands, and owned by Dundee Corporation. Thereafter, the principal officers of the bank, who were known to Tynkaluk, diverted millions of dollars in client money, for their own use, in a scandal now known as the Cayman Gang of Four.
inasmuch as the Leon Frazer clients beleived that Tynkaluk, the most senior Director at LF, and their personal wealth adviser, was acting as an officer of Leon Frazer, when he made those statements, this fraudulent misrepresentation of the tax law can be imputed to the company, under the well-established doctrine of Respondeat Superior, which binds a corporation for the wrongful acts of its staff and employees, when performed within the scope of their employment.
Readers who were curious as to why Leon Frazer has gone to such extreme lengths to prevent William Tynkaluk from giving sworn testimony, in the civil case against the company, now have some idea about the company's well-founded fear that his statements could spell the end of the 70-year old securities firm. We have previously covered some of the other grounds, including but not limited to, solicitation to engage in Insider Trading, soliciting Leon Frazer clients to purchase non-existent high yield investments, and solicitation of investment capital suspected to be the proceeds of crime. We anxiously await Mr. Tynkaluk's appearance, and testimony.
Contributed by Kenneth Rijock
Posted by Andrei Slavenkov