The former partner of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Celsius, is once again scorched by an American justice report made public yesterday.
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In his 689-page report, the former attorney general Shoba Pillay, mandated in the bankruptcy case, is scathing.
In the document, the word “Ponzi” is mentioned five times. “Ponzi-style” structure, “Ponzi consultant”… references to this scheme abound, which raises new questions.
According to the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), “Ponzi fraud consists of taking sums belonging to an investor to pay false returns to other investors or simply to reimburse investors who want their money back” .
No written policies
While the Caisse de depot has always maintained that it carried out the necessary verifications before investing the savings of Quebecers, the report highlights internal procedures that seem flawed.
“Celsius did not have a risk management function or written risk policies in place until 2021,” it notes.
It is pointed out that Celsius issued loans that were not fully or completely unsecured in an attempt to charge “higher interest rates”.
Celsius did not respond to questions from the Log Wednesday.
Last fall, the Caisse said it was studying “its legal options” in the file.