The company's two founders - Garth Drabinsky (chief executive) and Myron Gottlieb (president) - and two other executives were charged with falsifying the financial statements at Livent and misrepresenting its financial health, according to a report in the FT.

They have also been charged in the US with conspiracy and securities fraud. The two other executives named are Gordon Eckstein, former vice-president of finance and Robert Topol, the former chief operating officer.

The charges relate to accounting irregularities from 1989 to 1998, and represent Canada's first high-profile response to serious financial crime, in the wake of accounting disasters across the border in America.

Livent, a live theatre company with venues in Toronto, Vancouver, New York and Chicago collapsed in 1998.

Both men have repeatedly denied any wrong-doing.