CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A local pharmacist, named in a $50-million lawsuit related to the province’s e-gaming saga, has reached a settlement with his former business partners.
The terms of the settlement between Paul Jenkins and Capital Markets Technology Inc. have not been made public, according to documents filed with the P.E.I. Supreme Court. However, CMT has been ordered to pay Jenkins and a numbered company $150,000 in costs. The costs will derive from a security deposit of $348,716 previously posted by CMT.
Jenkins was sole director of a numbered company set up as a P.E.I.-based subsidiary of CMT in September of 2010. Jenkins and CMT president Paul Maines were both partners in a business arrangement to establish a financial transaction platform on P.E.I.
The platform was, for a period of time, considered for use as part of a provincial plan to establish P.E.I. as a regulatory hub for online gambling activity.
An amended statement of claim filed by CMT in June of 2018 accused Jenkins of breaching his fiduciary duty to CMT. The claim accused Jenkins of disclosing proprietary information to other parties and making false claims over the course of securities investigation.
Jenkins had been named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with 13 other defendants.
However, he had filed a counter-claim against CMT for $141,614 as well as costs.
It stated he had been unaware he was the sole director of the numbered company. An affidavit filed on behalf of Jenkins in late November stated that Jenkins was used by CMT president Paul Maines for his business contacts and that Maines then “began to leave (him) out of the loop.”
Both CMT’s and Jenkins’ claims have been dismissed by judge Gordon Campbell.
The lawsuit against the 13 other defendants, including former premier Robert Ghiz, former finance minister Wes Sheridan and current deputy finance minister Neil Stewart, will continue. A motion hearing is scheduled for Feb. 11.
CMT has accused provincial officials of violating the terms of an agreement signed between it and Innovation P.E.I. in 2012. Several staff members and elected officials named in the lawsuit are also accused of “misfeasance of public office” which is alleged to have caused reputational and financial damage to CMT.
None of these claims have been proven in court.
A 2016 report on the e-gaming saga by auditor general Jane MacAdam noted that, throughout the period of the e-gaming venture, several provincial officials disregarded legislation and policies related to conflicts of interest and disbursal of loans and grants. MacAdam also raised concern about the deletion of e-mails of government staff, in apparent contravention of the Archives and Records Act.
RELATED
