CALGARY – A hearing began Monday for former officials of Concrete Equities alleged to have misled investors and breached other securities laws.
The Alberta Securities Commission started laying out its argument in the cases of David Jones, David Humeniuk, Varun Vinny Aurora and Vincenzo De Palma. All were directors and officers of Concrete Equities — a commercial real estate vehicle – and related limited partnerships.
Among the allegations, the ASC said contracts related to the securities were not disclosed to Concrete investors, including marketing commissions.
“At its core, this matter is quite simple,” commission counsel Andrew Wilson told the panel of three hearing the case.
“We allege that Concrete Equities and each of the respondents engaged in an illegal distribution of securities in Alberta.”
He pointed out that the hearing is “not about the failure of Concrete Equities or assigning blame for that failure.”
Concrete Equities and its projects raised more than $100 million from investors in a commercial real estate fund, but went into receivership in the spring of 2009. The Calgary projects have recently emerged from receivership with new leadership but Concrete Equities is defunct.
The ASC hearing is slated to run 17 days.
The ASC expects to call 19 witnesses, including 17 investors.
Calgary Herald
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