MONTREAL – Two men arrested in the alleged Cinar/Norshield fraud scandal were released on bail Thursday morning, while two others remain at large, with warrants for their arrests outstanding.
Wearing a black jacket and a white button-down shirt, Hasanain Panju, 44, former chief financial officer of former Montreal animation studio Cinar Corp., appeared in court about 11 a.m. The 44-year-old Richmond Hill resident is accused of 36 counts of forgery, fraud and making and circulating a false prospectus. He was released on $50,000 bail.
Wearing a blue fleece jacket, a blue V-neck T-shirt and blue jeans, Lino Matteo, former president of Mount Real, who was picked up by police late Wednesday, was also released on $50,000 bail. The accused are not permitted to communicate with each other, except under the supervision of lawyers for the purposes of the trial. They are also barred from serving as officers of public companies or trading securities, except for the purposes of their own retirement savings plans. They are also not permitted to communicate with Thomas Muir, Mario Ricci and Robert Daviault, who are said to be important witnesses. Muir, a former Montreal investment adviser, ran Norshield International in the Bahamas. Ricci is a former Norshield vice-president. Daviault is the former chief financial officer of Globe-X Canadiana and Globe-X Management, which helped invest some of Cinar’s money.
Police are still searching for John Xanthoudakis, president of Norshield Financial Group, and Cinar founder Ronald Weinberg. All four men are accused of conspiring to divert more than $120 million from Cinar to several investment companies in the Bahamas tied to Norshield.
Police ask anyone with knowledge of the whereabouts of Xanthoudakis and Weinberg to contact them at 514-393-1133. On Wednesday, SQ Sgt. Martine Isabelle said one of the men had fled the country, but wouldn’t say which one.
Matteo and Panju will appear in court again on May 4.
It is believed Xanthoudakis allowed Weinberg and Panju to invest the money, while Matteo helped hide the traces of the investment.
"It’s a complex crime, a financial crime that necessitated the co-operation of authorities in Florida and the Bahamas, so that complicates the work of police officers," crown prosecutor Céline Bilodeau said when asked why it took so long for charges to come forward.
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