OSC v. Paramount Equity Financial Corporation and others (2019)

Judgment entered

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In 2019 Ontario Securities Commission staff alleged that Paramount Equity Financial Corporation and its principals misled investors in mortgage investment funds that raised about $78 million, putting about $50 million into riskier development projects and paying themselves fees. The tribunal's May 2023 order imposed permanent bans, a $1.5 million penalty on Marc Ruttenberg and $43.61 million of disgorgement.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	OSC
Release number	2019-12
Date filed	2019-03-29
Date resolved	2023-05-29
Court	Capital Markets Tribunal (Ontario)
Status	judgment
Criminal parallel	No
Bars imposed	trading ban
Defendants	Paramount Equity Financial Corporation (entity) ; Silverfern Secured Mortgage Fund (entity) ; Silverfern Secured Mortgage Limited Partnership (entity) ; GTA Private Capital Income Fund (entity) ; GTA Private Capital Income Limited Partnership (entity) ; Silverfern GP Inc. (entity) ; Trilogy Mortgage Group Inc. (entity) ; Marc Ruttenberg (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged	Ontario Securities Act s.126.1 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty: —
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: —
Alleged gain: —

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

Staff alleged that between September 2014 and December 2016 the Paramount group raised about $78 million from more than 500 investors through pooled mortgage investment entities by unregistered trading and illegal distributions, then put about $50 million into land and development projects instead of second mortgages, paid its principals about $3.87 million in fees on those projects, used pre-paid interest reserves for its own purposes, and later offered securities through Trilogy Mortgage Group after a receiver was appointed.

The tribunal made findings on April 25, 2022 and issued its sanctions order on May 29, 2023. It imposes permanent market bans on the entities and on Ruttenberg, a $1.5 million administrative penalty and $43.61 million of disgorgement (joint and several with Ronald Bradley Burdon) on Ruttenberg, and $600,000 in costs. The record previously showed the matter as dismissed, which was wrong.

No technique tag is applied. The allegations are misrepresentation, self-dealing and unregistered distribution; the documents do not describe returns being paid from later investors' money.

Timeline

2019-10-09 Reasons and Decision
2020-02-27 Other
2020-03-02 Reasons and Decision
2020-03-05 Reasons and Decision
2020-03-09 Other
2020-03-12 Statement of Allegations
2020-03-13 Reasons and Decision
2020-03-23 Reasons and Decision
2020-03-23 Reasons and Decision
2020-05-19 Reasons and Decision
2020-06-08 Reasons and Decision
2020-07-27 Reasons and Decision

Primary documents

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The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.