Banyan Tree Class A 5.5 million class action claim.

 This is one of those cases that I have had a lot of discussions with donors over. I have been against any and all of these schemes right from the beginning. I saw them as nothing more than a tax problem that is going to need a solution. I stand firm, do not argue that the pan is legitimate, it will just hurt you at negotiation time.

You can negotiate this case with CRA, but you need to know what you are doing or get some good tax problem solver help.

Dan White

ROCHESTER/PROMITTERE/BANYAN TREE
CLASS ACTION CLAIM

Recent Developments

The plaintiffs’ motion seeking certification of this action as a class proceeding was argued before the Honourable Madam Justice Lax, Designated Class Proceedings Judge, in Toronto, June 23, 24 and 25, 2009.

At the same time, the Gift Program Defendants argued a motion before the Court seeking a stay of the action.

The hearing proceeded for three full days before the Court and Her Honour reserved her decision.

This is not unusual in a case such as this which is legally and factually complex. An enormous volume of material was filed with Her Honour and she reserved her decision in order to have an opportunity to further review the materials filed and to consider all of the arguments made before her at the hearing.

In due course, Her Honour will issue a decision and a copy of it will be posted here.

This site will be updated to reflect Her Honour’s decision in due course as well as any other developments in connection with the case.

Overview of Claim

A Statement of Claim was issued in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto on February 27, 2008 claiming damages for breach of contract and negligence relating to the Banyan Tree Foundation Gift Program.

The action is brought under the Class Proceedings Act, 1992 on behalf of the class of persons who participated in the Banyan Tree Gift Program for the taxation years 2003 - 2007.

The Statement of Claim, which contains allegations which have yet to be proven in Court, alleges that Promittere Capital Group Inc., Promittere Asset Management Ltd. and Banyan Tree Foundation, with the assistance of Rochester Financial Limited, developed, promoted, sold and administered a gift program under which participants borrowed money to make charitable donations in order to receive charitable donation receipts and concomitant tax credits.

Participants borrowed substantially all of the funds donated and actually paid in cash only a small portion of the total donation amounts.

Law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP is also named in the lawsuit as it is alleged that it issued favourable tax opinion letters which were a necessary pre-requisite to the promotion of the gift program to participants.

We are compiling a database of individuals who participated in the Banyan Tree Foundation Gift Program for the taxation years 2003 - 2007.

If you have not already contacted us, we would appreciate hearing from you as it may assist us in pursuing this claim.

You may contact us by e-mail, telephone, mail, courier, fax, etc.

CONTACT US

If you would like more information regarding this claim or wish to be added to our database of claimants, you may e-mail us at: cyates@shlaw.ca

You can contact them directly by telephone at Scarfone Hawkins LLP
at 905-523-1333.

You can contact them by fax at 905-523-5878.

This entry was posted on August 28, 2009 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Tax Topics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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