John Xanthoudakis was arrested this morning at the Trudeau International Airport in Montreal, the final arrest in an investigation eight years in the making. The former president of Norshield Financial Group was apprehended Tuesday morning after arriving on a flight from Bermuda two weeks after Quebec police issued a warrant. He offered no resistance.
Johnny X. and three of his best buddies are being charged with scamming the $120 million defunct hedge fund and defrauding former children’s TV producer Cinar. The hapless foursome stands accused of trying to drain funds from Cinar into Bahamian investments. One of the four, Ronald Weinberg, was the president of Cinar, and is hip deep in the scheme. He was released on $140,000 bond after he also surrendered at Trudeau airport.
Felon-to-be number three is Cinar’s former CFO Hasanain Panju. He worked with Weinberg to redirect Cinar funds to offshore accounts in the Bahamas behind the board’s back. The fourth felonious amigo is Lino Pasquale Matteo of the Mount Real investment firm. He helped Johnny X. camouflage the Bahamian investments.
Add it all up, you have 36 counts against the feckless foursome. Top charges include forgery, fraud, and using false documents, including a phony prospectus. All of this took place between August 1998 and March 2000. Norshield investors ended up losing C$159 million through this object lesson in human corruption.
