A Canadian Hollywood financier, accused of misappropriating $44.5-million, is now dead – and investors are stuck | Canada Voices

In early May, 2022, Andrew Chang-Sang travelled to the Cayman Islands to meet with his business partner, Hollywood film financier William Santor.

The purpose of the trip was to discuss Mr. Santor’s new streaming venture, but Mr. Chang-Sang also had some questions for Mr. Santor about their Ontario company, Productivity Media Inc.

The company, which provided debt financing for film and television productions, was in the midst of a financial audit and a due diligence process with a prospective lender. PMI’s lawyer had spotted a couple of things that didn’t make sense to him, according to the version of events Mr. Chang-Sang later outlined in an affidavit filed in an Ontario court.

For one thing, a 2021 audit confirmation letter from Concourse Media, one of the sales agents PMI dealt with, had been signed by James Andrew Felts, who had sold his interest in Concourse two years earlier. And the e-mail address for Mr. Felts didn’t match the one he’d previously used.

Mr. Chang-Sang raised those issues with Mr. Santor, who explained that the split between Mr. Felts and his Concourse co-founder, Matthew Shreder, was still being finalized. The e-mail address, meanwhile, was associated with Concourse’s new distribution arm, he said.

Mr. Santor’s explanations seemed plausible to Mr. Chang-Sang. He hadn’t heard anything about Concourse launching a new distribution business, but it was the logical next step in the company’s evolution. And Mr. Santor spoke so confidently and without hesitation, Mr. Chang-Sang later wrote.

More than two years later, Mr. Chang-Sang sees those events “in a very different light.”

Mr. Santor died late last month, just weeks after a Mareva injunction imposed by an Ontario court froze his assets, including his bank accounts, high-end properties and luxury cars. His film financing company, meanwhile, is in receivership amid allegations of fraud.

The company, through its receiver, is accusing him of setting up imposter companies made to look like subsidiaries of legitimate sales agents and distributors that PMI had previously done business with, then diverting nearly $100-million of investor funds to them, according to court documents. Although the full magnitude of the losses is not yet known – the investigation is continuing – Mr. Santor allegedly misappropriated at least $44.45-million.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

One of the largest investors in a related entity, Productivity Media Income Fund, is Qwest Productivity Media Income Trust, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Qwest Investment Management Corp. CTBB-N. As of the end of June, 2024, Qwest’s investment was valued at $95-million, comprising roughly a third of the $291.8-million fund, according to documents from the receiver, KSV Advisory.

Other smaller investors include trust funds and pension funds associated with various Canadian labour unions, including for iron workers in Saskatchewan, electricians in Ottawa and construction workers in Manitoba. The LiUNA Local 183 Members Benefit Fund and the LiUNA Local 183 Retiree Benefit Trust Fund were also investors.

It was at their expense that Mr. Santor attempted to enrich himself, the company alleges.

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Productivity Media’s registered office is in Burlington, Ont., a world away from the glamour of Hollywood and the white-sand beaches of the Cayman Islands.

Mr. Santor, a Canadian citizen, founded the company in 2012 with two business partners. At the time, he was serving as the president of Prosapia Wealth Management, a firm that billed itself as specializing in asset allocation, wealth transfer and multigenerational wealth-building strategies. One of his clients was John Hills, the vice-president of information technology for Tim Hortons, who in turn introduced him to Mr. Chang-Sang. Mr. Chang-Sang also worked at Tim Hortons, as director of ad fund and payment solutions, according to court documents.

Neither of the Tim Hortons executives had any experience in the entertainment industry, but Mr. Santor assured them it didn’t matter. He would bring the Hollywood connections and his knowledge of the entertainment business, having financed numerous film projects during his time at TriStar Film Finance and Media House Capital. Mr. Hills and Mr. Chang-Sang would contribute their experience in operations, information systems and finance.

Mr. Santor, who owned 50 per cent of the company, took on the role of chief executive. The other half of the company was split between Mr. Hills, who became chief operating officer, and Mr. Chang-Sang, its president and chief financial officer.

In 2019, Mr. Santor and his wife, Sonja Santor, moved from Burlington to the Cayman Islands, according to court documents. They bought a 21,780-square-foot parcel of land next to a canal in an oceanfront gated community called Vista Del Mar for $1.46-million. They shelled out another $9.34-million to build a 9,400-square-foot home on the property.

Mr. Santor appeared to be a good corporate citizen. He was responsible for bringing several film productions to the Caribbean island, including The Baker, starring Ron Perlman, and The Retirement Plan, featuring Nicolas Cage, according to Deadline.

Court documents depict a high-roller who spent lavishly on jewellery, watches and wine and amassed an assortment of luxury vehicles: two Jaguars, a Bentley and a Porsche.

He bought at least two other properties as well: a US$1.15-million condo in Studio City, Calif., and a six-acre plot of land on Grand Cayman, which he later sold for US$4-million, as well as one of the two-bedroom condo units being built on that land.

But by the spring of 2024, problems had begun to surface. That April, PMI’s general counsel, Shara Lerman, had an alarming phone conversation with Mimi Steinbauer, the president and CEO of film sales agency Radiant Films International. Ms. Steinbauer told her that Mr. Santor had once pressed her into signing an audit confirmation letter for loans that didn’t exist, according to court documents.

Other troubling details soon emerged. Mr. Santor had told Mr. Chang-Sang that entities such as Radiant Canada, Dark Star Canada and Concourse Canada had been created as “growth funds” to hold loan money in a form of escrow. But Ms. Steinbauer told Ms. Lerman that Radiant didn’t have a Canadian entity.

By late June, Ms. Lerman had engaged a law firm, DLA Piper, to conduct an internal investigation. Two months later, when one of PMI’s largest investors, a Hamilton-based exempt market dealer called Westfield Partners, passed along an anonymous whistle-blower report, the law firm brought in outside help.

Westfield’s president, Alexander MacDonald, said his company “has been doing everything in our power to recover funds which were allegedly misappropriated by Mr. Santor.”

PricewaterhouseCoopers was enlisted to investigate the whistle-blower’s allegations, including that PMI’s portfolio contained more than $100-million of fraudulent films and that the company had passed its most recent audit by creating e-mail addresses with names similar to those of real companies and forging signatures on audit confirmations. Mr. Santor was put on a temporary leave of absence and barred from his corporate e-mail account.

He died Dec. 28 in the Cayman Islands, according to media reports and a source familiar with the matter. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to speak publicly about Mr. Santor’s death.

The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service said in a news release that it responded to a call shortly before noon that day about a man found unresponsive at an address in the Yacht Drive area, a location consistent with that of Mr. Santor’s Vista Del Mar home. The man was taken to the Cayman Islands Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.

A spokesperson for the police service declined to identify the man except to say he was a 50-year-old Canadian citizen living in the Cayman Islands. The investigation into his death remains active.

Mr. Chang-Sang swore his affidavit in late November, more than a month before Mr. Santor’s death.

After laying out all that the internal probes had so far unearthed about his business partner’s conduct, Mr. Chang-Sang concluded by saying he was “shocked and disheartened.”

“Throughout my tenure with PMI, I trusted and believed in Mr. Santor’s leadership and commitment to the company, and I did not anticipate or suspect any impropriety on his part,” he wrote.