Was Brison the leak?

[geoffrey]

In today's Globe and Mail:

TORONTO and OTTAWA — The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has turned over an e-mail received from Liberal MP Scott Brison to police and regulators as part of a probe into the income-trust controversy that dogged the Liberals in the recent election campaign, The Globe and Mail has learned.

Sources said the former public works minister, a potential contender for the Liberal leadership, sent an e-mail to one of CIBC's employees the day before Ottawa announced its much-anticipated policy on income trusts last November, in which he suggested the recipient would likely be pleased by the decision.

The bank did not learn of the e-mail until after the federal election campaign began, but when it did, it launched an internal review of its trading activity in the lead-up to Ottawa's announcement. The sources said the review did not turn up anything unusual, but CIBC still decided to bring its report to the attention of the RCMP and the Ontario Securities Commission.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...y/Business/home

So Brison decided a friend needed to know that the government's decision would be favourable to his business a day in advance. This is definitely acting contrary to the public interest.

I would hope Shapiro would be on this in a hurry, but it seems like he's too busy with chasing Harper down for doing nothing illegal.

Anyways, the investigation is in good hands with the RCMP. Hopefully charges will be pressed against Brison and he will be jailed (if found guilty of course) for this massive breach of public trust. I can't believe this guy would consider a leadership run.

If the e-mail said that in it, there is definitely a major conflict of interest whether he's found guilty or not. He should resign immediately as he is part of a major criminal investigation.

[sharkman]

This is the smoking gun that the Liberal party kept saying didn't exist during the election. Yet another crime and attempt to hide it. Brison knew full well that he had emailed this leak and of course kept quiet about it and no doubt prefered to repeat how the Tories and the RCMP had no basis for this investigation.

He should be arrested and charged. My only regret is that this information is being made public. Brison is no doubt busy at the shredder and strategizing with a team of lawyers to further block and detour justice. They should have kept his email quiet until they showed up with a warrant at his office and carted him away.

IF Shapiro keeps out of this he should be fired immediately, once and all proving his inability to investigate anything Liberal

[August1991]

From link above:

The bank did not learn of the e-mail until after the federal election campaign began, but when it did, it launched an internal review of its trading activity in the lead-up to Ottawa's announcement.

The bank did not learn? Huh? Someone working for the bank received an e-mail, that means at least one person working in the TD Bank knew about it. Or does this mean that "senior people at the TD Bank are pretending they didn't know".

The e-mail was part of a longer, general communication in which the former minister's remarks about income trusts were a small part, sources said.

Longer e-mail? But Brison can't remember anything about any communication.

[in fact, reading Brison's words, we are in Bill Clinton territory. He's not claiming he didn't send a message, nor even that it was a message about income trusts. Reading Brison's answers carefully, he's not saying or denying anything at all.]

First, if someone in the TD Bank got an e-mail, then someone somewhere else got one too. Who?

Second, why are we hearing about this now? The TD Bank spokesperson conveniently notes that the bank only learned of this e-mail since the election, as part of an internal investigation in which the TD Bank conveniently discovered that there was nothing wrong, yet the TD Bank has decided, suddenly now, to go public with this.

Let's see where this goes.

[geoffrey]

From link above:

The bank did not learn of the e-mail until after the federal election campaign began, but when it did, it launched an internal review of its trading activity in the lead-up to Ottawa's announcement.

The bank did not learn? Huh? Someone working for the bank received an e-mail, that means at least one person working in the TD Bank knew about it. Or does this mean that "senior people at the TD Bank are pretending they didn't know".

It means that an investment banker type, friends with Brison, got a friendly suggestion in this e-mail. The banker didn't want to say the source obviously, because banks have to be very strict on conflict of interest concerns. They have blacklists of shares they cannot trade because someone might have heard an inside rumour. The banker would probably be fired if they found he acted on the information, which he probably did, in order to impress management with some amazing returns for the week.

The e-mail was part of a longer, general communication in which the former minister's remarks about income trusts were a small part, sources said.

Longer e-mail? But Brison can't remember anything about any communication.

[in fact, reading Brison's words, we are in Bill Clinton territory. He's not claiming he didn't send a message, nor even that it was a message about income trusts. Reading Brison's answers carefully, he's not saying or denying anything at all.]

First, if someone in the TD Bank got an e-mail, then someone somewhere else got one too. Who?

The impression I got is that the CIBC, not TD by the way (they were not a winner on the announcement), was being investigated as part of the bigger deal, and scared of securities fraud charges, they came down hard with an internal investigation and found the source. It's not hard to find out who gave the advice to buy up these rapidly falling shares in income trusts.

Once they found out the guy, they probably tore apart his records until they found the suspect e-mail and then turned it over to the RCMP in good faith in order to avoid any investigation. The damage an RCMP probe into CIBC's banking group would cost hundreds of millions to the bank, especially if found guilty of any securities fraud.

Second, why are we hearing about this now? The TD Bank spokesperson conveniently notes that the bank only learned of this e-mail since the election, as part of an internal investigation in which the TD Bank conveniently discovered that there was nothing wrong, yet the TD Bank has decided, suddenly now, to go public with this.

Let's see where this goes.

See above. I think they just found this, and are covering their asses, dismissing responsibility to Brison and the banker.

Either way, lots of Canadians lost alot of money on this, and a few made millions. Having a background in this (I did a detailed paper on this exact deal) I can say that the way that trading occured that day that something was up, no doubt. I just didn't think the Liberals would have been that easy to catch in this.

[August1991]

It means that an investment banker type, friends with Brison, got a friendly suggestion in this e-mail. The banker didn't want to say the source obviously, because banks have to be very strict on conflict of interest concerns. They have blacklists of shares they cannot trade because someone might have heard an inside rumour. The banker would probably be fired if they found he acted on the information, which he probably did, in order to impress management with some amazing returns for the week.

Geoff, you're engaging in the same error as the G & M - which I can only surmise comes from the TD press release - and is disingenuous.

You switch between the terms "investment banker", "banker", "banks" and "management" as if they were all different entities. The TD Bank is just a building, and it's impossible to send it an e-mail. In this particular instance, the distinction is not pedantic.

At this point, it is pure speculation what Brison (or someone in his office) said in the e-mail and why this is coming out now. But a lack of hard facts never stopped me from advancing an opinion.

IME, banks have internal security and internal investigations primarily to keep things out of the public eye. The stock in trade of a bank is trust. So, if the TD Bank is going public with this story, there must be a good reason. And I'm intrigued by the timing.

[uOttawaMan]

If he did, it was probably for his own benefit in my opinion, to get his shot at leadership when the party was destroyed and weak.

[gerryhatrick]

I would hope Shapiro would be on this in a hurry, but it seems like he's too busy with chasing Harper down for doing nothing illegal.

Interesting you would absolve Harper of any wrongdoing without knowing the facts.

There is a chance he did break the rules, and if you want to retain what remains of your credibility you might want to wait for the details.

[geoffrey]

I would hope Shapiro would be on this in a hurry, but it seems like he's too busy with chasing Harper down for doing nothing illegal.

Interesting you would absolve Harper of any wrongdoing without knowing the facts.

There is a chance he did break the rules, and if you want to retain what remains of your credibility you might want to wait for the details.

Parlimentary tradition and securties laws are two different things.

And August,

I'm sure it was a banker at CIBC that received the e-mail, not the whole bank.

It's CIBC I'll say again by the way. At least lets keep the facts right in what bank it is.

I said earlier a completely plausible explaination why they are coming clean with it now. The RCMP pressured for details, the bank investigated using that internal security, found the e-mail, and disclosed it to the RCMP in order to cover their asses and say it was just some low-level banker and not management.

I'm confused by the points your trying to make here, your statements are lacking a central theme, and I'm completely lost.

[gerryhatrick]

Parlimentary tradition and securties laws are two different things.

So what?

Wrongdoing is wrongdoing. Don't absolve Harper until the facts are out.

[August1991]

I'm sure it was a banker at CIBC that received the e-mail, not the whole bank.

It's CIBC I'll say again by the way. At least lets keep the facts right in what bank it is.

I said earlier a completely plausible explaination why they are coming clean with it now. The RCMP pressured for details, the bank investigated using that internal security, found the e-mail, and disclosed it to the RCMP in order to cover their asses and say it was just some low-level banker and not management.

I'm confused by the points your trying to make here, your statements are lacking a central theme, and I'm completely lost.

Sorry, I kept repeating TD when I meant CIBC.

"Low level banker" and "management". In a case like this, there's no difference. My point is that the G & M article referred to the "bank" as if that were a distinct entity from one of its employees.

Moreover, I don't believe the bank (meaning managers, internal security) would wait for RCMP pressure before finding out what had happened.

IOW, if the Liberals had won the election, do you think the CIBC would have released this info? But as I say, I'm curious to see where this will go.

----

Incidentally, we already had a thread here on this topic. Sparhawk, I believe, made a good case that this was public info. In the grander scheme of things, I'm inclined to agree.

And here's a related fun quote.

[geoffrey]

I think they should have refered to CIBC as if it were distinct from employees.

Chances are it was a buddy of Brisons, considering the e-mail had 'other topics,' and he just thought he'd slip him a hint to help him out a bit. I don't think CIBC could be held responsible, especially if management wasn't notified. But if CIBC came across such information, and realise the RCMP was looking squarely at them, I'm sure they'd be disclosing in a hurry.

Your probably right that they'd disclose this sooner, but why worry investors when initially the RCMP wasn't looking at them? That would be a justified excuse, just hold on to the information until we are in trouble and maybe we'll avoid the whole fiasco.

Sparhawk did make somewhat of a valid point. However, this income trust deal isn't neccessarily a 'good' announcement. It would not neccessarily hurt, but it would disadvantage those in other portfolios. I don't know how much you know about income trusts, but simply put, oil and gas investors made a buck. These aren't usually the types that the Liberals have been fond of over the years.

Goodales decision could have been to tax them and level the playing field with other dividend type paying stocks such as utilities, as its somewhat of an unfair advantage to not have to pay tax. The investment community wouldn't have been suprsied by that annoucement. Or raise some funds for government spending?

None the less, I think it would be almost unreasonable to believe that someone close to the discussion on this one, like a cabinet minister, wouldn't give that kind of seemingly innocent hint to a friend. Hey Joe, keep an eye on those income trusts. Wink wink. Thats definitely insider trading, it will almost always happen when you have a big group thats in on a deal, but apparently Joe decided to tell a few friends too and the volumes got out of control and now it looks bad.

About Brison as a candidate for that behavior, though he's educated with a BComm from Dalhousie, I don't know if you'd learn the ethical problems with insider trading and what it constitutes in a general business stream. I've only encountered it in finance specific courses. He probably wouldn't have even know what he was doing is illegal. He rented small fridges as a business before politics, probably not up to the small details of insider trading regulations.

[wellandboy]

I would hope Shapiro would be on this in a hurry, but it seems like he's too busy with chasing Harper down for doing nothing illegal.

Interesting you would absolve Harper of any wrongdoing without knowing the facts.

There is a chance he did break the rules, and if you want to retain what remains of your credibility you might want to wait for the details.

Well Jerry, there's the small problem of Shapiro's not including Tim Murphy, former PM Martin's Chief of Staff into the Grewal investigation and by affiliation the former PM himself. The man is so tainted politically, he has no credibility to investigate Grewal, Harper or Scott Brisson.

The best thing for him and the country is to resign. Let's get an Ethics Commissioner ASAP, accountable to parliament just like the Conservatives and the NDP have proposed.

[geoffrey]

I would hope Shapiro would be on this in a hurry, but it seems like he's too busy with chasing Harper down for doing nothing illegal.

Interesting you would absolve Harper of any wrongdoing without knowing the facts.

There is a chance he did break the rules, and if you want to retain what remains of your credibility you might want to wait for the details.

Well Jerry, there's the small problem of Shapiro's not including Tim Murphy, former PM Martin's Chief of Staff into the Grewal investigation and by affiliation the former PM himself. The man is so tainted politically, he has no credibility to investigate Grewal, Harper or Scott Brisson.

The best thing for him and the country is to resign. Let's get an Ethics Commissioner ASAP, accountable to parliament just like the Conservatives and the NDP have proposed.

There ya go. Completely agree. I'm glad Harper isn't respecting his authority on the matter.