Kemptville investment manager guilty of fraud

A former eastern Ontario investmentmanager has been found guilty of eight fraud-related charges, after dozens of his clients lost millions of dollars invested with him.

Bruce Elmore, 61, of Kemptville, Ont., was convicted by a jury Friday of eight out of nine charges against him, including three counts of fraud over $5,000 andthree counts oftheft over $5,000. He was also found guilty of making false claims about his investment management firm, Elmore Investment Services, and refusing to answer questions through the bankruptcy process after his company declared bankruptcy in 2002. At the time, it owed $3 million.

The judge declared a mistrial on one of the charges because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. That particular charge concerned his disclosure of where he was investing his clients' money.

Elmore, whorepresented himself during his trial,sat with hishead in his hands after the verdict was read out. He said he didn't think he got a fair trial, something the Crown disputed.

He is to be sentenced at the end of June. The Crown attorney expects him to be ordered to serve five to 10 years in prison.

The Crown had argued thatElmore ran a Ponzi scheme between 1997 and 2002 that defrauded about 30 people of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. The clients, many of whom were seniors, believed Elmore was investing money on their behalf inGICs and other conservative financial products. Some even had documents to prove it. Elmore argued the clients knew they were investingin his company, which placed the money in high-tech stocks and real estate.

Some of his clientsdiedbefore the case finally went to trial inJanuary. At that time, Elmore pleaded not guilty to all charges.