26 accounts used for 'fraudulent' Norbourg withdrawals: expert

A forensic accountant has tolda Montreal courthow he tracked millions of dollars that the former president of the Norbourg investment houseallegedly bilked from clients.

Testifying Tuesday, Franois Filion produced about 80 files and numerous charts to show the path of about $115 million entrusted to Norbourg and its president, Vincent Lacroix, between 2000 and 2005.

Filion said money from 137 "irregular" and "fraudulent" withdrawals made their way through seven bank accounts first and then were transferred into 19 others, three of which were held by Lacroix.

"Norbourg, a small company in 2000, acquired companies with the diverted money and became 25 [companies] in 2005," Filion, who led the Quebec securities regulator's investigation into Lacroix and Norbourg, told the court.

Lacroix faces 51 charges under Quebec securities law.He is alleged to havefiled 115 false reports with securities regulators anddefrauded 9,200 investors in his company of millions of dollars.

Norbourg's clients and its affiliated companies lost about $130 million of the $205 million placed with Norbourg.

The three companies used to access the funds through Northern Trust were Norbourg International Inc., Norbourg Gestion d'actifs Inc. and Norbourg Groupe financier Inc.

Filion said the transfer of the funds, which normally would have gone into a trust, was "the artificial creation of shared capital," which enabled Lacroix to invest it as he wanted.