Amaya CEO David Baazov at the company’s headquarters in Montreal.Corey Hendrickson/The Globe and Mail
A Quebec court has released further details about the sprawling investigation into widespread trading of Amaya Inc. stock ahead of its takeover last summer of PokerStars.
The court lifted a publication ban on an updated search warrant drafted by the province's securities regulator that provides new information about what has become Canada's largest insider trading investigation.
The updated warrant reveals that the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) seized a variety of computers, e-mail, and phone records from three Amaya officials, including its chief executive officer David Baazov, chief financial officer Daniel Sebag and an unnamed manager.
Records were also obtained from a senior executive, broker and a broker's assistant at Amaya's deal adviser Canaccord Genuity Corp. Materials were also seized from 15 brokers in the Montreal branch of Manulife Securities, which was not involved in the takeover.
The names of the employees are redacted in the warrant but a Globe and Mail investigation revealed last month that the two of the Canaccord targets are Stuart Raftus, CEO of the Bay Street firm's wealth management unit, and Peter Kirby, a top broker who has been bullish about the gambling company for years.
The warrant also lists trading in Amaya stock by more than 40 unnamed Canaccord clients, which one person familiar with the investigation said were mostly Mr. Kirby's clients.
Amaya and Canaccord have said they have found no evidence of wrongdoing by their employees and executives targeted by the AMF. Manulife has provided the regulator with a report on its brokers' purchases and sales of Amaya stock and a spokesman said it continues to co-operate with regulators.
The warrant lists Manulife broker Elie Nassif and Canaccord's Montreal compliance officer Marvin Zwikler as witnesses in their investigation. Two people familiar with the investigation said the two men provided the regulator with basic information about their companies' computing systems and e-mail and phone records.
The AMF investigation was sparked by an unnamed whistle-blower and one of its investigators alleged in the warrant that he has reasonable grounds to believe that unnamed individuals improperly disclosed privileged information about the PokerStars deal or traded on the confidential information.
The regulator has not issued any formal allegations about any of its targets in the investigation.