Frank Newbould sting
| Frank Newbould sting
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Private intelligence "sting" on a retired judge, part of a wider undercover and influence operation |
| Date | September – November 2017 |
| Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada; London, England |
| Participants | Black Cube (B.C. Strategy Ltd and B.C. Strategy UK Ltd) and Psy-Group (Invop Ltd), as subcontractors of Tamara Global (Yossi Tanuri), which was retained for The Catalyst Capital Group Inc. |
| Organisers | Black Cube and Psy Group, under "Project Maple Tree". Catalyst's founder Newton Glassman said he did not authorise the judge sting |
| Victims | Frank Newbould, retired Justice of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice; current and former West Face Capital employees |
| Court | Ontario Superior Court of Justice (2021 ONSC 125; 2021 ONSC 7957) |
| Outcome | The recordings were not used in Catalyst's appeal. In 2021 the court ordered most Project Maple Tree documents disclosed and dismissed Catalyst's defamation and "Wolfpack" actions under Ontario's anti-SLAPP law |
The Frank Newbould sting was a 2017 undercover operation by the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube against Frank Newbould, a retired Ontario judge. It was carried out for the Toronto private equity firm Catalyst Capital after Newbould had ruled against Catalyst in litigation with West Face Capital. A Black Cube operative posed as a prospective arbitration client and secretly recorded Newbould while trying to bait him into anti-Semitic remarks. The recordings were then pushed to the press. Two Ontario Superior Court rulings in 2021 set out the operation in detail.
Background
In August 2016 Justice Frank Newbould dismissed Catalyst's action against West Face Capital and former employee Brandon Moyse (the "Moyse Action"), and Catalyst appealed.[1] Newbould retired from the bench in June 2017 and joined an arbitration practice.[2]
Catalyst's founder Newton Glassman turned to Yossi Tanuri, a friend and former member of an Israel Defense Forces commando unit, who ran the security firm Tamara Global. On 31 August 2017 Catalyst's lawyer Brian Greenspan retained Tamara on Catalyst's behalf. Tamara subcontracted Black Cube and Psy Group.[2][1]
Timeline
| # | Date | Event | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 August 2017 | Greenspan retains Tamara Global for Catalyst | [2] |
| 2 | 6 September 2017 | Glassman meets investigators in London, "for the most part, Black Cube employees", and at least one Psy Group representative | [2] |
| 3 | 7–11 September 2017 | Black Cube sends a draft letter of engagement with a US$1.5 million base fee plus "success fees". Glassman adds a handwritten "Bonus Legend", incorporated into the letter executed on 11 September, under which Black Cube would be paid US$75,000 "per item" of evidence that Newbould was biased against Catalyst or Glassman, was an anti-Semite, had a "deal" with West Face, or had another "inappropriate connection" | [1] |
| 4 | 13 September 2017 | Psy Group CEO Royi Burstein emails a "Project Maple Tree" plan. "Mission 1" names Newbould as the target and the Court of Appeal as the target audience, with the goal of promoting the message that he was "racist, anti-Semitic and biased". On the same day a Black Cube operative approaches Newbould posing as a prospective arbitration client | [2] |
| 5 | September 2017 | Black Cube operatives put Newbould under surveillance, following him to his Bay Street office, his home and a dry-cleaner. A deadline of 20 September is set because the appeal is listed for 26–27 September | [1] |
| 6 | 18 September 2017 | Two meetings, at Newbould's office and over dinner, which the operative secretly records while trying to elicit anti-Jewish remarks. A Psy Group agent emails Black Cube: "Basically we're trying to prove that he's a racist, a depraved anti-Semite...". A planned second sting at Newbould's golf club falls through | [2][1] |
| 7 | 15–21 September 2017 | A New York PR consultant, Virginia Jamieson, takes instructions from Psy Group's Emmanuel Rosen and approaches the National Post journalist Christie Blatchford. On 21 September Blatchford is given a USB drive of edited recordings of the sting | [2] |
| 8 | 12 October 2017 | Rosen meets Blatchford in Toronto and urges her to portray Newbould as corrupt. She becomes suspicious, finding the recordings do not support that claim | [2] |
| 9 | 24 November 2017 | Blatchford publishes an article highly critical of Catalyst's conduct that exposes the sting | [3][1] |
| 10 | September 2017 – February 2018 | The appeal is adjourned to February 2018 and later dismissed. The sting transcripts are not filed as fresh evidence | [2] |
| 11 | 11 January 2021 | Justice Boswell rules that most of the Tamara and Project Maple Tree documents are not privileged | [2] |
| 12 | 2 December 2021 | Justice McEwen dismisses Catalyst's Defamation Action and its Wolfpack Action under the anti-SLAPP provisions and dismisses Catalyst's motion in West Face's counterclaim | [1] |
Other targets
The same operation ran pretext "stings" on current and former West Face employees, including Moyse and Alexander Singh. Black Cube agents posing as recruiters for an Eastern European private equity firm met Singh in Toronto and flew him to London to question him about the Moyse litigation.[1] Psy Group's "black prong" of Project Maple Tree included a social-media wave of accusations that the West Face parties were involved in criminal misconduct.[1] West Face's counterclaim, filed on 29 December 2017, seeks $450 million in damages.[2]
Positions
- Glassman and Catalyst. Glassman deposed that he did not know of, or authorise, a pretext operation on Newbould. Greenspan's firm told Black Cube to "immediately desist" from such investigations "because that is not how things are done in Canada".[2] A source told Blatchford that Catalyst had neither ordered nor known about the sting until afterwards.[3]
- The court. Justice Boswell wrote that "luring a judge into a conversation based on a false pretext and attempting to bait him into making anti-Semitic remarks is remarkably improper". He found nothing in Newbould's judgment to suggest he was "biased, a racist or a depraved anti-Semite", and called the sting "unvarnished random virtue testing or worse". Justice McEwen agreed with Boswell's description of Project Maple Tree as "ethically dubious".[2][1]
Sourcing note
The account rests on two published court rulings and the National Post article. The Court of Appeal for Ontario's later rulings in the litigation were not checked and are not cited.
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Justice Thomas J. McEwen, The Catalyst Capital Group Inc. and Callidus Capital Corporation v. West Face Capital Inc. et al., 2021 ONSC 7957 (anti-SLAPP ruling), Ontario Superior Court of Justice, 2 December 2021 (PDF).
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Justice Paul R. Boswell, \x27\x27The Catalyst Capital Group Inc. v. West Face Capital Inc.\x27\x27, 2021 ONSC 125 (privilege ruling), Ontario Superior Court of Justice, 11 January 2021 (PDF).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Christie Blatchford, Exclusive: The judge, the sting, Black Cube and me, National Post, 24 November 2017.