by Mike Caswell
Canaccord Genuity Corp. and one of its former Abbotsford employees, John A. Weisgerber, are facing a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia from the estate of late property developer David Wiebe. The suit complains about unsuitable investment recommendations, including one to purchase $7-million worth of shares in CIBT Education Group Inc. that lost substantially all of their value. The estate seeks damages for breach of duty.
The allegations are contained in a notice of claim filed at the Vancouver courthouse on Feb. 8, 2013, by the executor of Mr. Wiebe's estate. According to the suit, Mr. Wiebe became a Canaccord client in the spring of 2005, when Mr. Weisgerber convinced him to move his investing accounts from RBC Dominion Securities. Mr. Weisgerber then aggressively persuaded Mr. Wiebe to invest almost all of his portfolio in CIBT Education, a TSX Venture Exchange company that ran technical and language colleges. Mr. Weisgerber assured Mr. Wiebe that an investment in the company was safe, viable and low risk, the claim states.