In it’s feigned attempt at providing so-called “balanced” journalism on the far reaching income trust matter, Kevin O’Leary acts as the token advocate on behalf of income trust investors on BNN (Bubble News Network). I say token, because Kevin’s advocacy hasn’t advanced much in the last 2 .5 years and he exhibits as much interest into getting into the heart of Jim Flaherty’s fraudulent tax leakage matter, as Mark Carney does. Meanwhile Amanda Lang is the ever present naysayer on income trusts and all things wonderful Jim Flaherty and Mark Carney on income trusts (for all intents and purposes, in the minds of knowledgeable viewers).
So in the interest of the integrity of the financial press (I think I am the only person worried about such a thing these days?), I have to ask the question about whether Kevin O’Leary has an embedded conflict of interest based on what I learned from his full page ad at the back of the Globe’s (sister company of BNN) April 18, 2009 Report on Business that features a head shot of Kevin O’Leary and the following, mail before midnight tonight, scheme:
O’Leary Funds
O’Leary Canadian Income Opportunities Fund
Exchange Option (exchangeable until April 24, 2009)
If you own securities of any of the following issuers, you are invited to exchange those securities for Units of O’Leary Canadian Income Opportunities.
Income Trusts:
Whereupon it lists 96 income trust issuers from Advantage Energy Income Fund to Zargon Energy Trust.
DOES THIS NOT REPRESENT A CONFLICT OF INTEREST???...............of course it does, but what would I know I only spent 25 years on Bay Street most recently as the Executive Managing Director of Equity Capital Markets at a bank owned dealer where I spent my entire career worrying about the integrity of the Canadian capital markets, which is probably why I got into so many differences of opinion with other “Bay Streeters” when I sat on the IDA’s Corporate Finance Committee and other industry committees. I was more interested in doing the right thing. They were more interested in making money.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Does BNN’s Kevin O’Leary have an embedded conflict of interest?
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5 comments:
Why does "et tu Brute" come to mind??
In the immortal words of Ziva David , something smells like "fish".
Dr Mike
Kevin has become another Dominic Delessandro!
Doug
My letter to Mr. Kevin O'Leary:
I watched you on BNN when the income trust decision came down. I saw how upset you were at the CON government's decision and you said you would do everything in your power to reverse the arcane 31.5% tax. My question to you is, what have you done to help remove the tax? I no longer hear you discussing the issue, have you changed your position? Have you bailed out of the trust market? Why has BNN refused to get the facts out to the viewers and why does BNN continue to parrot the current government and their lies?
Has anyone looked at the brochure he has put out, its really fancy, all you have to do is give him money for two years, and he will guanatee a 8% return, he will buy TRUSTS paying 13 % and more, he takes the difference, and sends you the crumbs, he must have gone to the same school as the CANADIAN economist did
john
John:
Don’t forget the FEE STREAM that he will earn....that’s the sole MODUS operandi objective....gathering assets to capture a fee stream.
I am so glad that Leery O’Kevin has found a way to make our income trust nightmare...”work for him”. Now I know why Kevin has been such a tepid and useless advocate and why he immediately “changed the channel” when the topic of reversing the income trust tax came up on that CBC special on ways the 2009 Budget could deal with Canada’s looming deficit, and feature the cast of Dragon’s Den, in which this point was raised by the founder of Boston Pizza Income Fund. Leery O’Kevin was anxious to kill that idea in a nanosecond, as maybe that was circa the time that he was drafting his prospectus for the Leery O’Kevin, mail before midnight tonight, income trust swoop?
Brent
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