Former clients of Victoria mutual fund salesman Harold Backer are trying to find out what happened to their money by pursuing a civil lawsuit.
B.C. Supreme Court has ordered the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to hand over account information for Backer and his company, My Financial Backer Corp., dating to the start of 1999.
The former Olympic rower disappeared Nov. 3, 2015. On April 13, he turned himself in at Victoria police headquarters and was taken into custody. A long list of clients, including friends and family, claim that he cost them millions of dollars in retirement savings.
He is facing two charges of fraud over $5,000.
Backer was tanned, thin, clean-shaven and wearing red jail clothing when he appeared before a Victoria provincial court judge on Tuesday. He showed no emotion, listened attentively to court officials and avoided looking into the public gallery. Two of his children, Harrison and Emma, were in the courtroom.
The hearing was adjourned and Backer will be held in custody until his next court date, set for May 2 at 11 a.m. The judge approved a request from the defence for a publication ban on what happened at Tuesday’s hearing.
The civil action against CIBC was initiated by the Carr family of Mill Bay. The Carrs said they had been investing with Backer since the early 1990s and claim he has cost them more than $1.2 million.
They filed suit against Backer’s former employer, Investia, in November.
The lawsuit alleges that Investia owed a duty of care to its clients to ensure Backer was properly supervised, especially after the Canada Revenue Agency won a judgment against him for more than $200,000 in 2004.
Investia has denied it had any responsibility for losses because the transactions that caused them were carried out by Backer off the books.
The Carrs are hoping the court order compelling CIBC to provide records will shed light on Backer’s “off book” work.
In December, the court ordered that CIBC provide all records, documents, related bank accounts, loan accounts and credit card accounts in the name of Harold Backer or My Financial Backer.
That order includes all statements between January 1999 to the present, all cheques written in that period as well as all deposits into the accounts and records of all transactions.
According to a lawyer involved in the suit, CIBC has yet to provide any of those records.
The civil suit now names Backer and his corporation, after the court ordered in December that Backer could be notified through his son, Harrison, and his wife, Elizabeth Hardy.
Shortly after Backer disappeared, the Carrs and other clients received letters from Backer expressing remorse for decisions he made that cost them money.
