UNFORGETTABLE SAGAS, SCOOPS AND SCANDALS
 from Toronto Life’slong-form archives

Dear Reader,

The finance world can often feel like a never-ending, white-knuckle roller coaster ride. At the end of 2022, Silicon Valley Bank was the 16th-largest bank in America, with $209 billion in assets. Once word of its troubles leaked, however, customers raced to withdraw funds, sinking the institution. Silicon’s total collapse last Friday marked the second-biggest bank failure in US history. Its swift crash prompted state regulators to turn a precautionary eye to Signature Bank in New York, which was heavily reliant on the cryptocurrency sector—and potentially vulnerable to a similar fate. Regulators shut the second bank down on Sunday, citing “systemic risk.”

The double wipeout has stunned markets and raised plenty of uncertainty about what’s next for banks in the US—and Canada. This week, we revisit stories about financial endeavours gone wrong: Torontonians who had soaring ambitions, only for their ventures to come crashing down. Buckle up for two wild rides.

The Imposter

Shaun MacDonald was an ambitious tech innovator whose start-up was going to revolutionize the crypto economy. Then investors discovered his true identity

BY LEAH MCLAREN | NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Toronto company Blockchain Terminal promised to simplify the dizzying complexity of digital currency trading and eradicate much of the industry’s endemic fraud. Little did wealthy investors know, the business’s charismatic founder, Shaun MacDonald, was really Boaz Manor, a notorious Canadian white-collar criminal who had been convicted in one of the largest scams in Canadian history. Leah McLaren took readers inside the start-up’s remarkable downfall, exposing the fraudster at the centre of it all.

The Oracle of Bay Street

Michael Wekerle’s wild lifestyle got him kicked out of the firm he helped build. Now he’s back and running a merchant bank that promises to make a lot of people very rich

BY KELLY PULLEN | OCTOBER 16, 2013

Michael Wekerle had a reputation on Bay Street as a risk-taker, known for his extraordinary market sense, his ability to rake in oodles of cash and his eccentric personality. Then, amid rumours of excessive partying and volatile behaviour, he was booted from a firm he helped create. He didn’t stay out of the spotlight long—bouncing back with a sparkly new venture that would allow him to both invest in and advise companies at the same time. In this feature, Kelly Pullen introduced readers to one of Bay Street’s biggest personalities, chronicling Wekerle’s personal downfall and phoenix-like reemergence to riches. 

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