Former partner of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Celsius, is once again scorched by an American justice report released yesterday.
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In his 689-page report, former Attorney General Shoba Pillay, in charge of the bankruptcy case, takes a scathing stance.
The document mentions the word “Ponzi” five times. “Ponzi-style” structure, “Ponzi advisors”… Evidence of this scheme abounds, raising new questions.
According to the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), “Ponzi scams consist of taking funds belonging to an investor in order to pay bogus returns to other investors or simply to compensate investors who want their money back.”
No written guidelines
While the Caisse de depot has always claimed that it carried out the necessary checks before investing Quebecers’ savings, the report highlights internal procedures that appear to be flawed.
“Celsius had neither a risk management function nor written risk policies as of 2021,” it said.
It notes that Celsius made loans that were not fully or fully unsecured in order to charge “higher interest rates.”
Celsius did not respond to questions from the Journal on Wednesday.
Last fall, the Caisse said it was “assessing its legal options” on the file.
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