For the third time, Canadian regulators have extended their trading ban against a prominent Toronto hedge fund.The Ontario Securities Commission ordered Sextant Capital Management to continue to refrain from trading until Sept. 17. The OSC first issued its trading ban in December; the agency said that the latest extension was necessitated by Sextantâ??s refusal to produce certain records and documents for OSCâ??s investigation into the firm.
The regulator has charged Sextant founder Otto Spork, his daughter Natalie, Sextantâ??s president, and Robert Levack, the firmâ??s chief compliance officer, with illegal self-dealing and inflating the value of the firmâ??s Strategic Opportunities Hedge Fund. According to the OSC, Sextant inflated the value of Strategic Opportunities and two offshore hedge funds by investing in a pair of private companies with rights to develop Icelandic glaciers. The regulator says that 95% of the hedge fundâ??s assets are invested in the companies, which are themselves almost totally owned by Spork and the Sextant funds.
