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ARTICLE · 05 MAY 2015

The Ontario Securities Commission’s Message to Bay Street: No Nonsense

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The Ontario Securities Commission (the "OSC") in Re Azeff[1] found Mitchell Finkelstein, a corporate lawyer at a prominent Bay Street law firm, as well as four investment advisors at large financial institutions, guilty of insider tipping and/or trading.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Jameel Madhany
Jameel Madhany
Brian Radnoff
Brian Radnoff
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The Ontario Securities Commission (the "OSC") in Re Azeff[1] found Mitchell Finkelstein, a corporate lawyer at a prominent Bay Street law firm, as well as four investment advisors at large financial institutions, guilty of insider tipping and/or trading. In doing so, the OSC sent a clear message to Bay Street: it will not tolerate misconduct by individuals who, in the normal course of their work, have access to material non-public information about publically traded companies and who try to take advantage of that information.

In Azeff, the OSC held that Finkelstein obtained material non-public information from his law firm regarding six mergers or acquisitions of publically traded companies between 2004 and 2007. Regarding three of those transactions, Finkelstein disclosed or "tipped" the material non-public information to his old friend Paul Azeff, an investment advisor, who in turn tipped a colleague, Korin Bobrow, contrary to section 76(2) of the Ontario Securitie

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