It’s been more than a year since the Canada-based labor venture capital Crocus Investment Fund stopped trading its shares, following questions about its actual value, and so far little has been done to resolve the matter. That trading freeze left some 34,000 investors wondering if they’ll ever see their money again, and planted the seeds of what they hope will be a class action against the fund. Twenty-two other defendants may be named in the suit, which include the usual brokerages, directors and auditors, and an unusual one – the Manitoba Securities Commission. Investors are claiming the agency failed to protect them by dropping the ball after it uncovered alleged problems with the fund.
This week, however, saw the sprouting of some action, as Sherman Kreiner, the fund’s former CEO, asked a judge to keep a report by Manitoba Auditor General Joe Singleton out of the case because of “incomplete and inaccurate” assertions that “led to improper and unsupportable conclusions,” Kreiner attorney Ken Dolinsky told CNEWS. Kreiner himself reportedly has released his own 71-page version of events.
The bad news for investors is that the process is moving exceedingly slow. So not only has it been about 13 months since they’ve seen their money – and apparently there hasn’t been much success in tracking it down – the lawsuit is also taking forever to get off the ground. As an example, CNEWS reports that a meeting just to certify the case as a class action is not expected until the fall.