Investors in funds offered by failed fund manager Stableview Asset Management Inc. are seeking to sue the firm’s court-appointed receiver, alleging that it mismanaged certain assets as part of the receivership — those assets purportedly reached a value of $100 million during the receivership, but ultimately fell to zero.
Back in 2020, at the request of the Ontario Securities Commission, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice appointed Grant Thornton Ltd. as the receiver for Stableview and its various funds, after a compliance review raised concerns at the regulator. Last October, Grant Thornton asked the court to wrap up the receivership, after it made a final distribution of the assets that it collected to investors.
However, that motion was adjourned at the request of certain Stableview investors, pending a possible legal action by those investors against the receiver, alleging that it breached its duties to investors and mismanaged assets it controlled as part of the receivership.
The allegations have not been proven, and leave from the court is required before the proposed legal action can go ahead.
The plaintiffs in that proposed action have brought a motion seeking leave from the court, which alleges gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of the receivership order, stemming from the receiver’s alleged “failure to prudently monetize and realize value on” shares of Voxtur Analytics Corp. that it held as part of the receivership.
“The share price of the Voxtur shares rose during the course of the receivership to a high of $1.73 per share with a total value to the unitholders of almost $100 million,” the plaintiffs alleged in their motion seeking leave.
“But the receiver did nothing to realize on that value, and failed to consider all relevant and applicable sales strategies, and failed to retain necessary professional financial consultants to maximize that value for the unitholders. Inexplicably, the receiver, in total disregard of its duties and obligations to the unitholders, recklessly did nothing as the Voxtur share price dropped down to a few cents,” they alleged.
Ultimately, Voxtur filed for bankruptcy protection in late 2025.
Both the investors’ motion seeking leave to bring their case against the receiver, and the receiver’s motion seeking to discharge the receivership, have yet to be heard.
Following a case management conference that was held on Jan. 8, the court noted that the list of plaintiffs in the proposed action includes judges that are currently serving in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, along with some notable Bay Street lawyers, so the case has been passed to an out-of-town judge to avoid any conflict of interest.
That judge held a conference on Jan. 21, and directed both the proposed plaintiffs and the receiver, to file materials on their respective motions — and adjourned the motions, pending a future conference to determine whether to hear their motions separately or together.