Themistoklis Papa-Dopoulos and Mario Bright, the men behind the rise and fall of Montreal-based mutual fund dealer Triglobal Capital Management Inc. have disappeared — and so has more than $86.3 million, far outstripping the $15 million estimated in December 2007, when the scandal first came to light.

Triglobal’s provisional administrator, Jean Robillard, a chartered accountant with Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton LLP, recently released new information detailing his findings concerning the collapse of Triglobal.

According to a document available on Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton’s Web site (www.ray-mondchabot.com), $48 million was placed in Ivest Fund Ltd., a mutual fund based in the Bahamas; $2.3 million went into Tricap Futures Fund, a mutual fund company also based in the Bahamas; and the remaining $36 million went directly into Focus Management Inc., a Cayman Islands-based hedge fund.

Most of the money placed in Ivest and Tricap was ultimately funnelled into Focus; Ivest transferred $30 million into the hedge fund and Tricap moved $3 million.

More than $110 million has passed through Focus bank accounts since 2001. Although there were frequent transfers into the accounts, the funds left the accounts just as quickly.

As of the release of the document, the provisional administrator had yet to recover any funds — and entertained little hope of any sizable recovery.

The sum upon which the provisional administrator has settled — $86 million— reflects only known investments; Robillard doesn’t know what other missing investments may be out there and is encouraging investors who placed money in Ivest, Tricap or Focus to come forward.

Robillard has drawn on what was left of Triglobal’s internal documents; available bank account statements; documents from clients, suppliers and investors; as well as on informal discussions and formal examinations of stakeholders in the network of companies in question to determine the amount of money missing.

Few assets remain to satisfy creditors, let alone angry investors.

Triglobal ceased operations in February and by May, Robillard and Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton as trustee had disposed of Triglobal’s property.

The dealer was deemed de facto bankrupt; creditors did not even file paperwork because there was nothing left.

The first sign that trouble was brewing came last fall. Triglobal was hemorrhaging advisors. (In fact, Triglobal advisors now have little hope of collecting the $321,000 in commissions that are outstanding.)

The trouble stemmed not from the rank and file of the growing firm, but from hand-picked advisors close to Papadopoulos, Triglobal’s president and CEO.Since 2001, they had been selling offshore placements that they were not registered to sell.

Angela Skafidas, Mario Angelopoulos, David Mizrahi, Brian Rousse and Joseph Jekkel, as well as Bright and Papadopoulos, have been identified by the Bureau de decision et révision en valeurs mobilières (an independent tribunal for securities law in Quebec) as having participated in the distribution of Ivest, Tricap and Focus securities.

In some cases, these securities were dressed up as debt instruments, but when investors demanded their principal back, Triglobal could not make good. In December 2007, investors approached Quebec’s securities regulator, the Authorité des marchés financiers; Robillard took over just before Christmas.

Robillard then brokered a deal that transferred much of Triglobal’s advisor network to Promutuel Capital Trust Co. Inc., and Triglobal’s remaining operations came to a halt on Feb. 7.

The subsequent investigation exposed an incestuous network of companies of which Triglobal was the public face.

Among Triglobal and the other firms — PNB Management Inc. 2967-9420 Quebec Inc., 4190424 Canada Inc. and 4384610 Canada Inc., as well as Ivest, Tricap and Focus — Bright and Papadopoulos are the common threads; one, the other or both are the proprietors.

PNB sold property to pay Tri-global investors, even though it had no ostensible link to Triglobal. Bright managed Ivest through PNB. Tricap was owned by yet another firm owned by Jekkel, Papadopoulos and Bright; Papadopoulos and Bright, however, were the ultimate beneficiaries.

PNB, Bright’s company, was involved in real estate, restaurant and entertainment services and the development of investment software, as well as the day-to-day management of Ivest, Tricap and Focus, which Bright himself handled. The investigation is ongoing.

The Triglobal mess harkens back to the collapse of the Norbourg Group of Cos.

It appears that, as former Norbourg CEO Vincent Lacroix was able to do at Norbourg Group, Papadopoulos and Bright moved assets within the network of companies they owned as if there were no boundaries between them.

@page_break@And despite the fact that warrants have been issued against Bright and Papadopoulos, neither have made themselves available. It is widely speculated that they have both left Canada. IE