Kemptville investment manager guilty of fraud

A former eastern Ontario investment manager has been found guilty of eight fraud-related charges, after dozens of his clients lost millions of dollars invested with him.

Bruce Elmore, 61, of Kemptville, Ont., was convicted by a jury Friday of eight out of nine charges against him, including three counts of fraud over $5,000 and three counts of theft over $5,000. He was also found guilty of making false claims about his investment management firm, Elmore Investment Services, and refusing to answer questions through the bankruptcy process after his company declared bankruptcy in 2002. At the time, it owed $3 million.

The judge declared a mistrial on one of the charges because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. That particular charge concerned his disclosure of where he was investing his clients' money.

Elmore, who represented himself during his trial, sat with his head in his hands after the verdict was read out. He said he didn't think he got a fair trial, something the Crown disputed.

He is to be sentenced at the end of June. The Crown attorney expects him to be ordered to serve five to 10 years in prison.

The Crown had argued that Elmore ran a Ponzi scheme between 1997 and 2002 that defrauded about 30 people of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. The clients, many of whom were seniors, believed Elmore was investing money on their behalf in GICs and other conservative financial products. Some even had documents to prove it. Elmore argued the clients knew they were investing in his company, which placed the money in high-tech stocks and real estate.

Some of his clients died before the case finally went to trial in January. At that time, Elmore pleaded not guilty to all charges.