What do I think? I think ccwipp members are being robbed and there's cover-up in the works. I think fsco copped out of it's responsibility - and I think ufcw pension boys have conveniently mistaken fsco's lameass condemnation for exoneration.
fsco's addendum basically states that any bastard can rip off pension plans as long as there's an indication of coming into compliance and as long as they communicate that to the fsco dorks.
If this is all fsco is then it's an obvious miscarriage of justice and the rest is simply a miscarriage of skin. 
FSCO Follow-Up Report on UFCW Pension Plan: Get Your Copy Here
The Financial Services Commission of Ontario has released the long-awaited follow-up to its damning May 2005 report on the Canadian Commercial Workers Industry Pension Plan. Here's your copy.
The CCWIPP trustees were quick to react to the follow-up document, posting a statement on their web site and issuing a media release implying that the FSCO has exonerated them of all but a few trivial administrative loose ends.
It doesn't look that way to us. What do you think?
The May 2005 Report.
The main point that should be understood is that the FSCO did not do an "audit" of the plan. They did much, much less. They did the equivalent of a "look see" of a few of the CCWIPP's investments.
This is round one. The audit will be done. It will be done. If this amount of crap was uncovered with the haphazard job the "dupe-troop" did, imagine what a full-blown audit by professionals would uncover?
While I'm here, I have a couple of other points to make. The fine folks at the FSCO told the CCWIPP to cough up all their documents in February 2003. Tom Golfetto ordered the following:
quote:
Given the possible serious nature of this matter, I require that you and the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Commercial Workers Industry Pension Plan (CCWIPP) provide the following information for review by the staff of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario. My authority for requiring this information is subsection 98(1) of the Act.
1. The pension fund has a number of investments in real estate through Propco Holdings. We require copies of all documentation related to these investments. The documentation should include, but not be limited to, copies of any due diligence reports, most recent appraisal reports, environmental reports and annual financial statements, copies of the minutes of any Board of Trustees and Investment Committee meetings where these investments were discussed and any correspondence related to these investments. We also require a copy of the Articles of Incorporation which include the names of the various Directors.
2. Copies of all minutes of the Investment Committee meetings during the period from January 1, 1997 to December 31,2002.
3. All information concerning the investments in private companies.
4. All information concerning the investment in AFM Hospitality Corporation.
5. Copies of your operational policies and procedures, especially those related to the investments in the pension fund.
6. Confirmation of the procedure for addressing conflicts of interest and related party transactions, and any correspondence or documentation not already provided which deals with these matters.
7. The Pension Governance Committee of CAPSA issued a paper in pension plan governance dated May 25, 2001 (a copy can be obtained at www.capsa-acor.org). Please provide a detailed assessment of the governance structure of CCWIPP in comparison with that paper.
8. Please provide a copy of the internal organizational chart for CCWIPP.
A year later when no documents had arrived, the FSCO went on a field trip to one of the many CCWIPP offices to do a "meet and greet". By December of that year, the FSCO had written its Report. Even though Mr. Golfetto had demanded "all" documentation, someone dedicded that it wasn't important that the FSCO crew see all the documents at that time.
Several months later, in December 2004, the CCWIPP read the FSCO report and must have thought that the FSCO was kidding. When they apparently realized that they weren't , in February and March of 2005 the CCWIPP coughed up more information and the FSCO went on another field trip to visit Gene Fraser at his Campbellville burrow.
The FSCO tweaked the December 2004 Report and published it. They then sent it around Canada for review by other agencies (in MHO, I think that's pure bullshit of an excuse). When the FSCO had no option but to release the Report, the CCWIPP guys went nuts. "Hey, FSCO," they said, "You haven't seen all the documents." They then provide the FSCO a whack of new documents that apparently weren't in the supposed 150 boxes that the CCWIPP claims that the FSCO sniffed over.
Now the FSCO writes an addendum stating that the original report stands with a couple of corrections. Wow, thanks to the corrections, we now know that Peter Martini wasn't President of CIBO Capital, but merely a board member -- just like Cliff Evans.
Yup! That really clears the CCWIPP and turns the Report on it's head. Bullshit! The CCWIPP is trying to make a sandcastle out of bullshit! Surprise boys, it don't look like a sandcastle. It looks like a pile-o-shit! 
If I sound perturbed it is because I am. Correct if I'm wrong but - just since fsco's first report was released, there's been at least a further $20 mil. of pension monies sunk into what for all intents and purposes, is a losing Bahamian venture(s) - just on more feasibilty crap. Good reason to be alarmed at the enforcement drag.
And the buggers have announced that they are going to step up the spending. Once the New Providence Development Company announced that they were going to take back the South Ocean Golf Course, the CCWIPPnicks announced that they were going to build a new hotel on the South Ocean site and renovate the golf course.
Ka-ching!
Oh, and they failed to float that plan past the FSCO too.
quote:
7. The Pension Governance Committee of CAPSA issued a paper in pension plan governance dated May 25, 2001 (a copy can be obtained at www.capsa-acor.org). Please provide a detailed assessment of the governance structure of CCWIPP in comparison with that paper.
You may be interested to know that the FSCO is a CAPSA partner. You'll also be surprised (or perhaps not) to know that the CCWIPP Administrator, Joan Tanaka, has been appointed by CAPSA to work with them on a major initiative. Read this MEBCO newsletter to find out how close the CCWIPP administrator is to CAPSA. www.mebco.org/pdfs/MEBCOnews_Spr05.pdf
You have to understand that MEBCO is run out of the old CCWIPP headquarters on Queens Plate Drive. Joan is a major push and the CCWIPP is the biggest player in MEBCO.
If you read the MEBCO newsletter, linked above, you'll also see our pal FSCO pension honcho David Gordon doin' the lunch thing with Joan and the crew.
CCWIPP, FSCO, MEBCO, CAPSA -- `Ohana holo`oko`a
That ain't the role the FSCO should be playing. They should sit in a corner and think about their mandate and whose interests they are supposed to be protecting.
They are so silent on this issue:
quote:
"22. I am advised by John C. Hubble and do verily believe that upon being cross-examined in this matter by solicitors for the Plaintiff, Clifford Evans testified he entered into an agreement with Mr. Scarponi pursuant to which he was to purchase one home in Mr. Scarponi's subdivision at a cost of $60,000.00. He further testified that he paid the sum of $60,000.00 to Mr. Scarponi and, in return, received three Agreements of Purchase and Sale showing deposits of $20,000.00 on each of three homes. Mr. Scarponi has sworn in an Affidavit filed in these proceedings that, in actuality, Mr. Evans was purchasing three homes and that the Agreements of Purchase and Sale were legitimate."
I understand that the FSCO were fully aware of this issue, but they said absolutely nothing about it in their Report. Hmmmm......