Investors in defunct hedge fund Norshield Financial Group stand to lose C$400 million (US$360.5 million), so you can’t blame court-appointed receiver RSM Richter for hunting for information that will help it recover some missing cash. The latest expedition had Richter requesting U.S. marshals visit the Minnesota Horse & Hunt Club, where, according to a sworn affidavit, club co-owner William Urseth and Lino Matteo, of bankrupt Mount Real Corp., a firm with ties to Norshield, “disposed of the contents of the U-Haul trailer” in which some 70 boxes of HF documents were transported from Chicago, according to the Montreal Gazette. (Both men reportedly have been longtime business associates of Norshield CEO John Xanthoudakis.)
An unnamed informant says in the affidavit that the dumped documents included account ledgers, bank statements and canceled checks – all of which could aid in the recovery of the lost millions. But Urseth, while acknowledging the disposal, claims it was only stuff like old stationery, marketing materials and even coffee cups. “Anything that I felt that was even remotely important, I put a question mark on the box and put the box away,” Urseth told the Gazette. Besides, the destroyed documents – which apparently were shipped from Chicago to Minnesota because of a storage problem – didn’t even belong to the HF, but to affiliate Norshield Investment Partners, which is not under receivership, according to Urseth and Xanthoudakis.