fstaxsolutions

In 1968, Mel Brooks wrote and directed the sometimes outrageous film, The Producers.  In this film, which Brooks reprised in a 2001 Broadway musical of the same name, the protagonist, Max Bialystock, created a scheme through which he was able to convince a coterie of unsuspecting individuals to invest in his deliberately ill-fated Broadway ventures. He did so on the strength of his self-styled reputation as the “King of Broadway”. He enlisted the support of his star-struck accountant, the nebbish Leo Blum, whose function was to, among other things, doctor the books of account of the productions. Regrettably for Bialystock and Blum, the play which they first produced—and which they hoped would sputter out on or shortly after opening night—became a resounding success. Their scheme failed miserably, resulting in their prosecution, conviction for fraud and ultimate incarceration. So is the story of Livent and a cast of characters in 1989 including Garth Drabinsky and his long-ti...

Adam Smith wrote a long time ago that when two or more people in the same business get together for any purpose, golf etc. the conversation will automatically turn to how the "rent" can be increased. Nowhere more so than the "self-governing" crooks of our society. Lawyer Carrie-Lynn Barkley “misappropriated” more than $83,000 of trust monies held on behalf of several clients, including a couple in their mid 80s. Like many lawyers disciplined by the Law Society, Barkley treated her trust account like her personal piggy bank, dipping in to funds held for client estates or real estate deals for unnamed “fees” or to pay rent. In an agreed statement of facts tendered at her law society discipline hearing, Barkley acknowledged she failed to deposit retainers, used monies from one client to pay expenses for another, failed to keep records, bounced cheques, and “failed to perform legal services to the standards of a competent lawyer.” Barkley, a Queen’s Univ...