Source: The Canadian Press

Thousands of Norbourg investors hope a $55-million settlement will extinguish five years of pain and allow them to recover nearly all of the money they lost in one of the biggest investment frauds in Canadian history.

“I’m ready to turn the page and start a new life,” Michel Vezina, one of two lead defendants in the class action lawsuit, said Wednesday after the deal was announced.

The 71-year-old insurance appraiser and auto body repairman was forced to return to work two years after retiring, but considered himself luckier than other investors who were weighed down by heavy debts.

“There were difficult moments but I never lost hope and knew that we would win.”

Vezina plans to expunge from his records all references to Norbourg and disgraced president Vincent Lacroix once he fully recovers the $300,000 he invested.

Wilhelm Pellemans, a 70-year-old Laval plastic surgeon who was co-plaintiff, said he’s particularly happy for the more than 9,200 other victims. “During those five years you have ups and downs and you never know because sometimes you never go to the 100% so what we achieved today I think is sort of victory for us,” he said in an interview.

The settlement with Quebec’s securities regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers, as well as four groups that were directly involved in Norbourg including accountants Beaulieu Deschambault and Remi Deschambault, financial services firm The Northern Trust Company, KPMG LLP and Concentra Trust does not include an admission of liability.

The 9,217 investors in the 2005 fraud will likely begin receiving distributions from the fund in April, about a month after it is expected to receive approval from the Quebec Superior Court.

Investors will be automatically contacted and don’t need to register unless they have moved or are not included on any contact lists.

The total final distributions could exceed $60 million once all the month is accumulated by liquidator Ernst and Young.

The settlement Wednesday is in addition to $58.5 million from a fund administered by Quebec’s securities regulator, the bankruptcy trustees and liquidator and Quebec’s revenue department.

Investors were duped in a scam that saw money from a Norbourg trust fund diverted by ex-founder Lacroix for personal use. Fifteen months ago, Lacroix was sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to 200 fraud-related charges.

Pellemans and Vezina said they are angry that Lacroix has a parole hearing next week and could soon be freed from prison.

“Lacroix is old history. He did what he did. He paid not much for it but the rest of his life will be probably a little more difficult,” said Pellemans.

Both said the lessons of their misfortune are to be vigilant about investments and not put everything in one basket.

All proceedings involving investors in the Norbourg matter and a separate lawsuit against the Caisse de depot et placements du Quebec will effectively end with the court’s approval, Quebec’s securities regulator said.

The Caisse is contributing $1 million to the settlement to help cover fees.