MONTREAL - The fourth suspect sought in the $120 financial fraud case involving animation company Cinar has been tracked down by police.
John Xanthoudakis, ex-president of Montreal hedge fund Norshield Financial Group, was arrested by Surete du Quebec on Tuesday morning at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport.
Norshield has been the subject of legal proceedings for allegedly fleecing investors out of millions of dollars.
Xanthoudakis, who is expected to appear in court this afternoon, has been in trouble with securities regulators before. Last August, he and former Norshield president Dale Smith were ordered to pay $4.3 million in fines for misleading investors.
The Cinar scandal began in 1999 when the RCMP started investigating the production house, whose children's TV shows included the popular "Caillou" and "Arthur."
Four people have been arrested in the case and face charges including fraud, forgery, using fake documents and publishing a false prospectus.
Cinar co-founders Ronald Weinberg and Micheline Charest were ousted and the company was plunged into financial crisis when word leaked of money invested illegally in Bahamian hedge funds.
Norshield lost most of the $159 million invested by its 1,900 Canadian retail investors when it collapsed in 2005.
Provincial police said their lengthy investigation included meeting 50 witnesses and analyzing 50 boxes worth of documents and nearly 10,000 computer files.
with files from The Canadian Press
