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The Gazette (Montreal)
May 27, 2005 Friday
Final Edition
Judge scorches CIBC branch manager: Denounces failure to contact
fraud victims. Trial for Montreal couple who unknowingly guaranteed
losses of strangers nears verdict
PAUL DELEAN, The Gazette
The lawyer defending CIBC Wood Gundy's seizure of $1.4 million from a
retired Montreal couple who unknowingly guaranteed the trading losses
of complete strangers got a thorough grilling yesterday from Superior
Court Judge Jean-Pierre Senecal.
As CIBC lawyer Bernard Amyot presented closing arguments in the
five-month-old trial, Senecal intervened for clarification on several
key points.
He drew attention to the failure of CIBC branch manager Tom Noonan to
actually phone or meet with retirees Haroutioun and Alice Markarian
in the years before the brokerage took their money using guarantees
obtained by former broker Harry Migirdic, an admitted fraudster. (The
Markarians are suing the CIBC for the return of the $1.4 million,
plus $10 million in punitive damages).
"Why didn't he (Noonan) make a call?," the judge asked.
Amyot said he sent letters instead.
"Is there any better way to facilitate fraud than do everything on
paper?" Judge Senecal commented, later adding "if it had only
Noonans, CIBC would be bankrupt."
He also wondered why CIBC had never contacted Sebuh Gazarosyan, whose
account (guaranteed by the Markarians) was $1 million in the hole.
Gazarosyan was Migirdic's uncle in Turkey and only a figurehead.
"If I'm a branch manager, and a client I don't know owes $1 million,
I think I'd be interested in meeting him," Senecal observed. "He owes
$1 million to CIBC, but the branch manager never meets him. How is
that possible?"
Amyot agreed that if calls had been made, the fraud would have been
detected sooner, but maintained the Markarians had deactivated CIBC's
internal checks and balances by signing guarantee confirmations year
after year.
Senecal also zeroed in on wording in the CIBC defence mentioning that
Migirdic and Markarian both were members of Montreal's tight-knit
Armenian community and giving the impression they were somehow
complicit.
"Why this reference to them being in the same community? Why insist
on that?" the judge asked.
Amyot said CIBC never alleged there was an Armenian plot, but there
could have been. "Was it a possibility? Yes. There's nothing racist
in saying that."
The trial is expected to conclude today.
May 27, 2005 Friday
Final Edition
Judge scorches CIBC branch manager: Denounces failure to contact
fraud victims. Trial for Montreal couple who unknowingly guaranteed
losses of strangers nears verdict
PAUL DELEAN, The Gazette
The lawyer defending CIBC Wood Gundy's seizure of $1.4 million from a
retired Montreal couple who unknowingly guaranteed the trading losses
of complete strangers got a thorough grilling yesterday from Superior
Court Judge Jean-Pierre Senecal.
As CIBC lawyer Bernard Amyot presented closing arguments in the
five-month-old trial, Senecal intervened for clarification on several
key points.
He drew attention to the failure of CIBC branch manager Tom Noonan to
actually phone or meet with retirees Haroutioun and Alice Markarian
in the years before the brokerage took their money using guarantees
obtained by former broker Harry Migirdic, an admitted fraudster. (The
Markarians are suing the CIBC for the return of the $1.4 million,
plus $10 million in punitive damages).
"Why didn't he (Noonan) make a call?," the judge asked.
Amyot said he sent letters instead.
"Is there any better way to facilitate fraud than do everything on
paper?" Judge Senecal commented, later adding "if it had only
Noonans, CIBC would be bankrupt."
He also wondered why CIBC had never contacted Sebuh Gazarosyan, whose
account (guaranteed by the Markarians) was $1 million in the hole.
Gazarosyan was Migirdic's uncle in Turkey and only a figurehead.
"If I'm a branch manager, and a client I don't know owes $1 million,
I think I'd be interested in meeting him," Senecal observed. "He owes
$1 million to CIBC, but the branch manager never meets him. How is
that possible?"
Amyot agreed that if calls had been made, the fraud would have been
detected sooner, but maintained the Markarians had deactivated CIBC's
internal checks and balances by signing guarantee confirmations year
after year.
Senecal also zeroed in on wording in the CIBC defence mentioning that
Migirdic and Markarian both were members of Montreal's tight-knit
Armenian community and giving the impression they were somehow
complicit.
"Why this reference to them being in the same community? Why insist
on that?" the judge asked.
Amyot said CIBC never alleged there was an Armenian plot, but there
could have been. "Was it a possibility? Yes. There's nothing racist
in saying that."
The trial is expected to conclude today.