OSC faces document quagmire in Sino-Forest investigation 2
When Emily Cole walked into an Ontario Securities Commission hearing room Thursday to represent her newest client, it was a familiar setting for the veteran lawyer.
Ms. Cole, who has been hired by Sino-Forest Corp.juicy couture [[entity]]Sino-Forest Corp. [[/entity]]TRE-T co-founder Allen Chan, is a former OSC counsel who is best known for taking over as lead lawyer in the high-profile case against Bre-X Minerals Ltd. chief geologist John Felderhof.
The hearing was told she has been hired by Mr. Chan, who is based in Hong Kong, because he felt he needed a Canadian lawyer to handle his legal issues in this country. Mr. Chan resigned as CEO of Sino-Forest in late August, but has been given the honorary title of “founding chairman emeritus.”
Ms. Cole was a senior lawyer at the commission for seven years from 2002 to 2009 before leaving to work in private practice at Toronto law firm Miller Thomson LLP.
In one of her last roles at the commission, Ms. Cole was deeply immersed in the OSC’s investigation of the freeze-up of Canada’s non-bank asset-backed commercial paper market in the summer of 2007. She became lead counsel in the late stages of the OSC’s investigation into Coventree Inc.’s role in the collapse of the ABCP market.
Ms. Cole also worked extensively on the marathon Felderhof case, which was prosecuted in provincial court. She became lead counsel for the OSC in 2004 after former lead lawyer Jay Naster resigned from the OSC. Mr. Felderhof was acquitted in 2007 of insider trading and misleading investors, marking a major loss for the OSC in Canada’s only criminal prosecution in the gold fraud case.
Ms. Cole would not comment on Sino-Forest at the hearing Thursday. She told the hearing panel her client is helping the OSC in its investigation of the company. Janet McFarland
Processing your request, Please wait....
