Canadian execs charged after accounts inquiry
Four former executives of collapsed entertainment group Livent have been charged with accounting fraud, following a four-year police investigation.
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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.