Here's some more news on Cinar:
Cinar says it has found some of missing $86M
Nanny on payroll
Sinclair Stewart and Paul Waldie
Financial Post
Cinar Corp. said yesterday it has recovered $10-million (US) in cash out of a missing $86-million (US) in unauthorized investments.
However, more issues have surfaced surrounding the company's accounting practices.
The Financial Post has learned that the co-founders of Cinar put their live-in nanny on the payroll, although company reports do not mention that Cinar pays her wages.
The animation firm is still paying the salary of Olga Vukobrat, the nanny for Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg's sons, even though the executives have been fired. Sources say Ms. Vukobrat earns nearly $30,000 a year.
A spokeswoman for Cinar declined to comment on the Vukobrat matter. She also would not elaborate on how the $10-million (US) was obtained, or whether Cinar was likely to recover the remaining $76-million (US).
Cinar fired Ms. Charest and Mr. Weinberg as co-chief executives this week amid allegations of improper accounting and $122-million (US) worth of inappropriate investments. Ms. Charest and Mr. Weinberg, who are married, are still directors of Cinar and have vowed to continue working with the company.
Cinar faces a host of investigations over its accounting and finances and it has already announced that it will likely have to restate financials for the last two fiscal years, as well as the first three quarters of 1999.
Cinar's payroll records list Ms. Vukobrat's address as the Westmount mansion owned by Ms. Charest and Mr. Weinberg. Ms. Vukobrat declined to comment when contacted by the Financial Post at the couple's country home in Magog, Que.
When asked to comment, Mr. Weinberg replied: "I can't really continue to have this conversation with you. I've been advised that I shouldn't be talking with the press because things are taken out of context. I'm happy to speak to the press when I am able to say the full story at that time."
Ms. Charest and Mr. Weinberg earned nearly $2-million in total last year in salary and bonus.
A company official confirmed yesterday that Ms. Vukobrat is still on the Cinar payroll.
Meanwhile, Cinar is now facing a funding freeze from private sector funding agencies, who have opted to follow the lead of Ottawa and suspend handouts to the troubled animation company.
Sharon Blank, executive director of the Shaw Broadcasting Funds, confirmed they had cut Cinar's access to funding "pending satisfactory answers to certain questions."
"We've followed the lead of Telefilm and the Canadian Television Fund," she said. "With us smaller funds -- and I think it's safe to speak on behalf of us -- if Telefilm is satisfied, we're satisfied."
Cinar is currently eligible for about $900,00 per year from the Shaw Funds, which include the Shaw Television Broadcast Fund and the Shaw Children's Programming Initiative.
A spokeswoman for three other funds, the Cogeco Program Development Fund, the Independent Production Fund and the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, said they, too, will likely follow Telefilm's example.
"The likely scenario is that all the private funds are going to do what
Telefilm has done just because they're in the same position for legal reasons," she said, adding the board of each agency will review Cinar's status at the end of the month.
The Cogeco fund covers between 3% to 10% of total production costs, up to a maximum of $450,000. The Bell fund pays 50% of Web site costs, up to a maximum of $250,000.
The loss of these private funding agencies means that most of Cinar's national funding sources have dried up.
On Wednesday, Telefilm, the federal government's main funding agency for movies in Canada, told the Financial Post it had ceased its dealings with Cinar and given the company three to four weeks to "clarify certain issues.
The next day, the Canadian Television Fund and Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office each sent letters to Cinar, demanding the company provide them with more information before they would resume dealing with Cinar.
The private funding agencies are just the latest group demanding answers from the beleaguered animation company..
Yesterday, Standard & Poor's Canadian Index Operations said it is now reviewing the status of Cinar, which currently resides in the TSE 300 Composite Index, the TSE 200 Index and the S&P/TSE Canadian MidCap Indexes, because of the recent funding scandal.
"The options are either to remove it [from the index] or leave it there," said David Blitzer, chairman of the 7-member index committee for the TSE 300.
"If it becomes clear that the halt will continue for a long period of time, or if it's likely the company will not go back to trading, then there's a strong inclination to see about removing them."
nationalpost.com |
