The victims of a massive banking fraud in Montreal have rejected a $12.5 million offer from the Royal Bank of Canada, dismissing the proposed settlement as "a joke" and just "pennies on the dollar."
The victims of disgraced financier Earl Jones are seeking $40 million in a class-action suit for the bank's alleged negligence in its handling of his accounts. Jones was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 11 years in prison earlier this year on charges stemming from a lengthy, multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.
"All these cheques were cashed at the Royal Bank without the necessary attention paid to whether they were double endorsed or illegally cashed, They need to step up to the plate," one of Jones' former clients Sue Brown told CTV News.
Kevin Curran, whose mother is also among those who invested with Jones, dismissed the $12 million offer as "a joke." Curran said he has spent much of the last two years helping his mother put her finances back in order.
An internal bank memo from 2001 questioned how the account was being used.
More recently, RBC told the Montreal Gazette it was "no more than Earl Jones's bank and one more target for his deceit."
Earl Jones victims will rally on July 16 outside a Montreal-area RBC branch where he did business for decades.
Jones' former clients have had better luck with the federal and provincial governments, from which tax refunds have recently begun to appear. During the scam, they paid taxes on interest for money they never actually earned.
A year and a half after many lost their savings, many are now seeing some relief.
"(Money) has started to trickle in from both the federal and provincial government," said Brown.
Another client, Margaret Murnighan said her $13,000 refund is a welcome boost to her now dire financial state.
"I exist these days; I don't truly live because there's always this nagging concern about finances," she explained.
With a report from CTV Montreal's Aphrodite Salas
