Missing mutual funds seller is focus of 3 investigations
VANCOUVER— At least three investigations are underway in the case of an investment dealer and former Canadian Olympic rower who has gone missing from Victoria.
Investia Financial Services Inc. has launched a probe into the activities of Harold Backer, who is also the subject of two missing-persons investigations — in his hometown and in Washington state.
The Victoria Police Department has said Backer, 52, told his wife on Nov. 3 that he was going for a bike ride but failed to return home.
“Harold’s family needs to know that he is safe,” the department said in a statement asking for the public’s help in finding Backer.
Police in Port Angeles, Wash., said last week that an officer who viewed video from a street security camera on Nov. 3 noted a man fitting Backer’s description was aboard a ferry from Victoria, a 90minute trip away.
Pierre Picard, a spokesman for Investia in Quebec City, issued a statement saying Backer has been a representative for the company since June 2005 and it has never received complaints from clients.
“Although Investia has no reason to believe that there has been any wrongdoing on the part of the representative, the company takes this situation very seriously and is conducting a full investigation into Mr. Backer’s professional activ- ities with Investia.”
The Canadian Securities Administrators lists Backer as a seller of mutual funds in B.C. and Ontario, and its website says he agreed to be supervised. Investia said that is “in no way related to his mutual fund dealings with clients.”
“Investia’s thoughts are with the family of Mr. Backer during this difficult time,” the company said.
Backer competed in rowing in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games.
A report in the Victoria Times Colonist said Backer wrote a letter to his clients before he disappeared and apologized for mismanaging their money.
Terry Paul, who was Backer’s rowing teammate in the 1988 Games in South Korea and the ’92 Games in Barcelona, said he last saw Backer in Victoria at the end of October. Paul said Backer may have written a letter to clients “out of the goodness of his heart” after realizing “he got in over his head” in the mutual funds business. “I just think living with that had to be incredibly stressful for him. I just can’t imagine what he’s been going through for how long and what he’s going through now.”