Mysterious gold bars in the heart of Highpoint Falls

An incredible story of gold bullion and tens of millions of dollars in investments will be the source of the downfall of Solution Highpoint, the Montreal film company that faces disintegration today.

That’s what we learned from a recent report by Raymond Chabot, the recipient responsible for, among other things, shedding light on the sudden disappearance of hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — of dollars from the company’s coffers, even then. Funded by the National Bank of Canada (NBC).

For registration, remember that at the request of the financial institution, the court urgently, in July, ordered the appointment of a receiver. Without delay, the latter has since taken control of Solution Highpoint, firing the company’s CEO and CFO and offering all of its assets for sale.

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Gold broker, Africa

The recipient’s report paints a picture of a fast-growing company, founded and owned by businessman Jean-Francois Dube, who was seduced by the promises of a businessman disguised as a “gold broker” after he went into heavy debt to fund his growth. for African mines.

This man, a man named Pierre Gaston, from Montreal, verbally pledges, in 2021, to pay $100 million to his company. The proposal piques the interest of Mr. Dube, despite the unfavorable opinion of the BNC.

In addition to exempting him from large debts (more than 11 million dollars), this will allow him, among other things, to purchase the share of his joint stockholder, the Investment Fund in Culture and Communications.

Millions are stuck in Toronto

The problem is that Pierre Gaston doesn’t really have the money in his possession. He explained that this money will come from obtaining a bank credit line up front, in return for a guarantee obtained on a hoard of 575 kilograms of gold in the form of bars and 6 million US dollars in silver.

However, this treasure resulting from brokering activities on behalf of African mines with “European and Canadian banks” appears to have been stored for four years at Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson Airport, with no apparent access to it.

This is how, according to the detainee’s report, Jean-Francois Dube had found himself willing to help Pierre Gaston certify and release this ingot stranded in Toronto, in exchange for the unwritten promise that the latter would subsequently invest at least $100 million in the solution. high point.

Travel and remittances in Ghana

In addition to supplying him with the company car and paying several trips to Africa, in the spring the National Bank discovered a series of payments from Highpoint, made between January and May 2022, all for Pierre Gaston.

In all, it is a “minimum” of $895,000 that Highpoint could have made or paid to the investor without informing the National Bank. These payments, made without his knowledge, would have led to a significant and rapid deterioration in the company’s liquidity.

Jean-François Dube and Pierre Gaston did not respond to an interview request. For its part, the National Bank refused our invitation under the pretext of “legal procedures”.

Investors who are interested in all or part of Highpoint’s assets have until September 12th to move forward. If all goes according to plan, all of these assets – including contracts – will have found buyers by October.

With Philip Langlois of the Bureau of Investigation

Pierre Gaston, from helipad promoter to gold dealer

But who exactly is this Montrealer from Saint-Henri, who appears to be the owner of about fifty gold ingots stuck at Pearson Airport in Toronto, and who will participate today in defeating Solution Highspeed?

to know more , Newspaper In the past few days, I tried to contact Pierre Gaston to no avail. However, the research enabled us to confirm that the latter presents an atypical pathway.

Montreal residents, for example, will be surprised to discover that in addition to working in the precious metals trade, Pierre Gaston is also the promoter and largest shareholder of the Héliport Montréal Centre-ville.

Despite the efforts, this project, which Mayor Dennis Cowdrey later praised, has been struggling for twelve years to see the light of day.

Almost empty accounts

His profile on Linkedin also introduces Pierre Gaston as a “quiet and effective leader,” the co-founder of the Ingrid Betancourt Foundation, having worked “in more than fifteen countries” (CARE, Red Cross, French Embassy), and skilled at seizing “opportunities” to turn it into a profit.

However, during checks at the bankruptcy supervisor’s office, the National Bank discovered that Pierre Gaston had benefited from bankruptcy and insolvency law three times in recent years (1990, 2017 and 2019), which raised its suspicions.

Raymond Chabot later discovered that during the first six months of 2022, nearly $1 million could have been paid by Solution Highpoint to Pierre Gaston or his import-export company.

Money that would have been transferred, at least in part, since then to Ghana and Florida.

Eager to get the money back, Raymond Chabot confiscated his company’s accounts at TD Bank this summer. As of July 8, the balance in this account has decreased to $182.24.