Jewish charity organisation embroiled in AMF inside trading investigation

The Canadian Jewish News and other related media are reporting the startling news that a Jewish charity organisation may be embroiled in the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) investigation into insider trading allegations against former Amaya CEO David Baazov and other associated persons.

The reports quote from documents filed by the AMF disclosing that its officials had seized Cdn$87,000 in cash in a raid of the Centre Chabad, listed at a Montreal address, on June 20 this year.

The documents apparently raise a suspicion that the money was being laundered through the centre by individuals targeted in the Amaya investigation.

The AMF revealed that the raid was undertaken to examine the Chabad centre’s banking records and communications between its employees and those connected to the Amaya investigation or Baazov, according to the Jewish News.

“The AMF discovered the money was donated to Centre Chabad, a charitable organization, by a former Amaya consultant, and suspects that it was gained through the alleged insider trading and kickback scheme,” CJN reports.

The consultant is one of those reportedly under investigation.

Officials visiting the Centre Chabad reported that they searched the car of the centre’s director, a rabbi, during the execution of a search warrant, and found Cdn$87,000 in $20 bills

Legal representatives for the centre claim that the money came from voluntary donations made to the retreat or raised through a gala and the sale of Hilloula candles, and that the AMF action in seizing the cash was illegal because the search warrant applied only to the Centre itself, and there is in any case no evidence linking the money to any illegal activity.

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