A Quebec court lifted a publication ban on an updated search warrant drafted by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), revealing further details on the insider trading investigation involving Amaya Gaming’s 2014 acquisition of PokerStars.
Acording to the Globe and Mail reports, the court confirmed that the AMF seized computers belonging to three Amaya officials, including CEO David Baazov, CFO Daniel Sebag and another unnamed employee.
Documents were also seized from execuives and brokers of financial firm Canaccord Genuity Corp. along with files from 15 brokers at the Manulife Securities Montreal branch.
The names of the employees were redacted for legal purposes, but last month there were reports revealing that two of the Canaccord targets are wealth management unit CEO Stuart Raftus and broker Peter Kirby.
The warrant also listed 40 Canaccord clients, which according to the Globe and Mail‘s reports were mostly Kirby’s clients.
AMF also listed Elie Nassif (Manulife broker) and Marvin Zwikler (Canaccord’s Montreal compliance officer) as witnesses in the investigation, who provided AMF with basic information about their companies such as computing systems and records of e-mail and phone calls.
Amaya’s stock experienced an unprecedented surge in trading prior to the $4.9b acquisition of the Rational Group, owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt, which prompted AMF to investigate for evidence of insider trading.
Amaya had their Montreal headquarters raided in December while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and AMF also paid unannounced calls on Canaccord and Manulife Financial.
It is believed that the AMF began investigated the Rational acquisition after being contacted by two whistleblowers within Manulife.
If this is true, even though Amaya and Canaccord confirmed that AMF has neither threatened nor initiated any legal proceedings against the corporation or its employees, it is likely that the AMF has a solid evidence to present to a court prosecution and this investigation is not just based on circumstantial eveidence.
