History

Mike Lathigee has spent the last ten years rebuilding his reputation after the collapse of his last company.

Michael Lathigee’s situation is a complicated one, marked by a series of events where his financial loss and reputation were overshadowed by actions from the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) and media coverage. Despite Lathigee suffering greater losses than any other stakeholder in his company’s collapse, the BCSC acknowledged through their legal representative that he gained no personal benefit from the failure. Yet, his story takes a sharp turn when key incidents unfold, casting serious doubt on the fairness of the treatment he received.

One such incident occurred when Matthew Pruitt, a lawyer for the BCSC, oversaw the seizure of Lathigee’s belongings from his Las Vegas residence. This action came after the BCSC had obtained a court judgment in Las Vegas, despite Lathigee requesting a brief postponement of discovery information due to his mother’s passing. The BCSC took unexpected action with an asset seizure which purposely happened on the very day of her funeral.

During the seizure, a locksmith discovered bullets in one of Lathigee’s safes. The Constable watching the locksmith left the room to question Mr. Lathigee about the bullets and in the ensuing chaos, the locksmith stole 68 one-ounce gold coins when the constable left the safe room as he was no longer watching the locksmith.   The locksmith left the house and went outside and came back several minutes later.  

The BCSC never took responsibility for this theft incident.  Lathigee provided documented proof that the coins were in the safe, but the coins never showed up on the seizure manifesto.  It was later discovered that shortly after the seizure the locksmith quit his job, and it is speculated he had a very lucrative pay off from the botched BCSC Lathigee seizure. Adding to the attacks, the Vancouver Sun published an article accusing Lathigee of using Canadian investors’ funds to buy a home in Las Vegas and posted pictures of Lathigee’s house in the newspaper.

Lathigee provided evidence to the reporter showing loan agreements and repayments of the loans to the reporter Gordon Hoekstra who wrote the article. In the article Hoekstra published a picture of Lathigee’s house and implied the house was bought with stolen Canadian investor money. It was an irresponsible story that served no purpose other than to feed a story he believed was getting him lots of attention. When Lathigee spoke to Hoekstra he stated he would not print a retraction despite the fact there was no truth to his story. 

The Vancouver Sun has a history of non-factual reporting, here is another example.

Despite these setbacks, Lathigee paid $350,000 USD to the BCSC, intended for reimbursement to the investors who had lost money, but the promised restitution to investors never materialized and the BCSC kept all the money. It is interesting that Hoekstra did not write a story that the BCSC did not return any of the $350,000 that Lathigee provided to the investors in his company   

Lathigee’s professional history paints a different picture of him. Over the years, he successfully managed several profitable ventures, including a fund that capitalized on rising uranium prices.  He oversaw the placement of monies for FIC investors in several public traded uranium companies when uranium was under USD$10 a pound and these companies all did well with uranium eventually surpassing USD$100 per pound with millions of dollars in gains for investors. 

In addition, he oversaw the involvement of his FIC investors in a short-term lending firm that provided 24 percent APR payments for 3 years and these payments were made monthly with ACH deposits. Then investors converted funds into a pre-IPO at $1 a share that later traded as high as $13 per share. Again, millions of dollars were made in this transaction for Michael’s investors. 

Upon his arrival to Las Vegas in 2011 he oversaw the purchase of 68 properties in a company he was the managing member called Highmark Realty and all these properties generated monthly cash flow.  The investors received quarterly cash flow payments and 4 years later the properties were sold as a bundle with gains of a few million dollars.

However, his critiques of the financial services industry and its self-interests did not sit well with many. He showed in constant public presentations that over 80 percent of fund managers underperform the market index and charge massive fees.  He gave examples of fund managers like Peter Schiff who charged double digit fees and some of his funds collapsed by over 80 percent, yet, Peter Schiff greatly enriched himself. Michael became a target of power brokers in the financial services industry who did not like the message he conveyed to the public.

The BCSC organized a tribunal against Mr Lathigee.  It is interesting to note that the adjudication process was both administered and decided by paid employees of the BCSC.  The process was very biased and the hearing was a farce of due process.  There were two key testimonies during the hearings for Mr. Lathigee. Former Chief Financial Officers of Mr Lathigee’s company testified to the transparency and integrity of Lathigee’s financial disclosures, yet the BCSC chose to ignore this evidence, which many saw this treatment by the BCSC as biased and unfair. In fact, the 3 person tribunal only appeared to take notes when its own lawyer presented evidence on the 3rd day. It truly was a Kangaroo Court.

Michael had several successful projects with investors making lots of money, however, in one large Real Estate deal, the credit market froze after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing market downturn. Toronto Dominion Bank pulled financing from a real estate development project that Lathigee was overseeing in Edmonton, despite his payments being up to date.

This unnecessary move contributed to the project becoming insolvent. Dozens of land lots were sold to builders but the TD Bank made a decision to call all land loans in Alberta even if they were performing as Lathigee’s loan was. The actions of TD were unethical at best and please see the video above that tells a more detailed story of TD Bank

Michael has always been very transparent about the result of the civil adjudication against him and when speaking in public or having any new relationship he always tells people to Google him and ask him any questions they like. Due to complications, however, with sourcing any credit or banking relations or accommodation Michael recently changed his name. “Any credit or accommodation application I completed was denied once my name was Googled. I could not even open a bank account and to try and have any level of a normal life I changed my name”.

In addition to these struggles, Lathigee pursued legal action against individuals like John Tansowny, Corrupt Lawyer Malcolm Lennie, Ken Horne and Dennis O’Dowd, who had defrauded his company and its investors. Lathigee pursued lawyer Malcolm Lennie and he was disbarred because of the fraudulent actions he took against Lathigee’s investors. 

There is a police file of the actions of these defendants submitted to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commercial Crime Unit.  Please see attached lawsuits and results below that tells the real story on fraud that was committed.

Find out more about the RCMP here.

However, the BCSC chose to focus on a public relations campaign against Lathigee, seemingly overlooking the real culprits. In fact, despite this information being provided to the BCSC and this information being in the Public Domain, the BCSC were completely apathetic to take any action or follow up and seemed content on waging the campaign against Lathigee due to all the positive public relations they were getting. This suggested that the BCSC’s efforts were more about shaping public opinion than seeking actual justice. It was Tansowny, Lennie, Horne and O’Dowd that stole and defrauded the investors. But, the BCSC seems completely uninterested despite the results of these lawsuits that have taken years for the truth to be told.

Despite Lathigee’s ongoing legal and financial battles, he has remained a target of the BCSC’s public relations strategy, fueled by media attention, especially from journalist Gordon Hoekstra, who repeatedly focused on his case for over a decade. Even with all the setbacks, Lathigee’s commitment is to ensure the truth is told as he tries to defend himself against a government organization with an unlimited budget and resources.

The Battle for Truth

Mike Lathigee, has spent the last ten years rebuilding his reputation after the collapse of his last company.