OSC v. Solar Income Fund Inc. and others (2019)
Judgment entered
Checked against the primary document on October 2, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.
In 2019 Ontario Securities Commission staff alleged that the managers of a solar-energy income fund diverted more than $20 million of investor money to related funds and fees instead of buying solar assets. After findings in March 2022, the tribunal's January 2023 sanctions order imposed market bans, administrative penalties of $1,000 to $175,000 per respondent and disgorgement of $234,864.
The record
| Agency | OSC |
|---|---|
| Release number | 2019-35 |
| Date filed | 2019-09-26 |
| Date resolved | 2023-01-11 |
| Court | Capital Markets Tribunal (Ontario) |
| Status | judgment |
| Asset class | crypto, equities |
| Venue | Nasdaq |
| Criminal parallel | No |
| Bars imposed | trading ban |
| Defendants | Solar Income Fund Inc. ; Allan Grossman ; Charles Mazzacato ; Kenneth Kadonoff |
| Cited as charged or alleged | Ontario Securities Act s.126.1 |
| Techniques |
What was ordered
- Civil penalty
- —
- Disgorgement
- —
- Prejudgment interest
- —
- Total relief
- —
- Alleged gain
- —
What is alleged to have happened
The statement of allegations of September 26, 2019 concerned SIF Solar Energy Income & Growth Fund, which raised about $57 million from investors between 2013 and 2014 on an offering memorandum promising that the money would buy, develop and operate solar installations. Staff alleged that Solar Income Fund Inc. and its directing minds Allan Grossman, Charles Mazzacato and Kenneth Kadonoff caused more than $20 million to be used for other purposes, including transfers to affiliated funds in return for unsecured notes and over $3 million of development fees, and that some investor money went to pay distributions in another fund they co-managed.
The tribunal gave its merits decision on March 28, 2022 and its sanctions order on January 11, 2023. The order imposes permanent trading and registration bans with limited carve-outs, administrative penalties of $175,000 on the company, $175,000 on Grossman, $125,000 on Kadonoff and $1,000 on Mazzacato, disgorgement of $234,864.04 (of which $51,361.34 also falls on Kadonoff), and costs. The record previously showed the matter as dismissed and carried a $500,000 penalty; neither matches the order.
No technique tag is applied. The conduct is diversion of fund proceeds in breach of the offering memorandum; the documents never describe a Ponzi scheme, and the cross-fund distributions are one strand of the diversion, not the charge.
Timeline
- 2019-09-26 Notice of Hearing
- 2019-09-26 Statement of Allegations
- 2019-10-15 Reasons and Decision
- 2019-10-21 Reasons and Decision
- 2019-10-21 Other
- 2020-02-07 Reasons and Decision
- 2020-04-07 Other
- 2020-04-20 Reasons and Decision
- 2020-08-11 Reasons and Decision
- 2020-10-30 Other
- 2020-12-11 Reasons and Decision
- 2021-01-14 Reasons and Decision
Primary documents
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