BC court strikes former CIBC Wood Gundy advisor’s 58-party counterclaim
That earlier case, which the court called the Debt and Wrongful Dismissal Action, went to trial in June 2023 but settled before it finished. The advisor agreed to pay CIBC $500,000 in two instalments of $250,000. He paid the first and not the second.
CIBC returned to court in July 2024 to enforce the settlement. The advisor argued it was unenforceable because it had been obtained through fraud. In May 2025 a judge rejected that position, granted CIBC summary judgment for $250,000 plus interest, and struck the part of his counterclaim that sought to undo the settlement. The Court of Appeal upheld that ruling in January 2026.
The pleading at the center of this decision was filed during the 2025 summary judgment hearing and amended that August. It named 58 defendants, including the other major Canadian banks, securities and banking regulators, federal and provincial governments, national accounting and law firms, media organizations, and a list of executives and public officials. Forty-three of them, represented by 10 legal teams, asked the court to throw it out.
At its core were claims the court called the Financial Misfeasance Allegations: assertions that the named parties committed, facilitated, or failed to stop practices the advisor described as naked short selling and illegal algorithmic market manipulation, including spoofing, baiting, and wash trading. He also alleged he was fired for reporting that conduct, and that misconduct tainted the 2023 trial and settlement.
The court struck the counterclaim entirely, describing it as “confusing, disorganized, prolix” and an abuse of process to the extent it tried to relitigate settled matters. The advisor conceded the pleading was defective and asked for another chance to fix it.
