The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMAS-BASED fifth-generation family office, whose roots trace back to Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) longest-serving president, is facing a winding-up petition over regulator concerns it has been “highly negligent” in managing investor assets.

The Securities Commission, via legal documents seen by Tribune Business, is urging the Supreme Court to place Holdun Family Office (Bahamas) in judicial-supervised liquidation after its investigation allegedly revealed the financial services provider was valuing investment funds it managed “based on assets that did not exist”.

The Bahamian capital markets and investment funds regulator, in its August 31, 2026, winding-up petition also claimed that Holdun, which is based at the Albany Financial Centre in south-western New Providence, had charged clients “unjustifiable” fees for the investment funds it managed while also using investor assets to make loans to a company owned by one of its directors who was unnamed.

The move for court-supervised liquidation comes after three investment funds managed by Holdun - the Holdun Income Fund, Holdun Innovation & Technology Fund and Holdun Opportunity Fund - were themselves all subjected to separate winding-up proceedings over the past 18 months. The latter two are in court-supervised liquidation in The Bahamas.

The Securities Commission, noting that none of the three funds have been able to repay investors what they are owed due “to their deteriorated financial position and illiquidity”, is further alleging that the liquidators for both the Holdun Innovation & Technology Fund and Holdun Opportunity Fund have made “prima facie findings of apparent fraud”.

While no further details were provided in its filings, the Securities Commission’s winding-up petition claims that, as a result, Holdun’s management are “no longer fit and proper” to carry on financial services business or “manage client assets prudently”.

“The Commission has identified material deficiencies in Holdun Family Office (Bahamas) operational activities, financial stability and governance, giving rise to significant regulatory concerns and posing risks to investors, market integrity and the reputation of the jurisdiction,” the Bahamian regulator blasted in its winding-up petition.

“By reason of these deficiencies, the Commission is concerned that Holdun Family Office and/or its management are no longer fit and proper to carry on regulated activities or to manage client assets prudently. The deficiencies also include Holdun Family Office’s demonstrated failures in the proper management and prudent decision-making concerning the investment funds for which it acted as investment manager.

“The company’s management of those funds has been marked by serious governance and regulatory failures, including the unauthorised surrender of a fund licence, the transfer of a regulated fund’s operations outside the jurisdiction without the requisite regulatory approval and the placement of funds under court-supervised winding-up proceedings.”

The Securities Commission added that, taken together, this adds up to a “continuous conduct pattern that raises significant concerns regarding the company’s fitness and capacity to carry on regulated activities” in compliance with Bahamian law. The two sides are now understood to be awaiting a date from the Supreme Court for a hearing of the winding-up petition, which is likely to be forthcoming imminently.

Christina Rolle, the Securities Commission’s executive director, could not be reached for comment before press time last night. Tribune Business also sought a response from Brendan Holt Dunn, Holdun Family Office’s chief executive, and Holdun itself, but no official reply or response was received.

However, well-placed sources speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly, yesterday said Holdun was seeking to work with rather than against the Securities Commission. They added that it had already decided to exit the fund management business, and instead seek a banking licence, which had been communicated to the Bahamian regulator, and ensure Holdun remained in operation.

Holdun traces its origins back to the late Sir Herbert Samuel Holt, a Canadian industrialist, engineer and financier who, in 1908, became the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) president and chief executive, serving until 1934 in that capacity.

However, Tribune Business reported last year how the $113m Holdun Innovation and Technology Fund - one of the three to attract the Securities Commission’s attention - was placed into court-supervised liquidation amid concerns that some of its investments were linked to an “illegal gambling syndicate” and “unlicensed betting exchange”. Investors in the fund had also complained that Holdun was not honouring redemption requests to pay out what they were owed.

Mr Dunn and Germaine Bullard, Holdun’s chief operations officer, met the Securities Commission on March 2, 2026, to discuss the way forward and continued operation of the investment funds, at which time they announced their intention to exit this business.

However, the Securities Commission took a different approach. “The Commission is of the view that the managers have either been unwilling or unable to resolve matters which led to the respective funds being placed into winding-up proceedings by regulatory action,” its winding-up petition said. “Consequently, the regulatory winding-up of Holdun Family Office is the most prudent and appropriate recourse.”

It reiterated that, due to the winding-up of the three investment funds, “the Commission became gravely concerned as to Holdun Family Office’s fitness, propriety and capacity to continue carrying on regulated activities, and as to its ability to manage funds and client assets in a prudent, compliant and orderly manner”.

Ms Rolle, in a July 1, 2026, letter warned Holdun that the Securities Commission planned to suspend its registration for 30 days and petition the Supreme Court for its winding-up under the Investment Funds Act 2019. The provider was given seven days to reply.

Mr Dunn replied on July 8 , 2026, reasserting Holdun’s plans to exit the investment funds business, surrender its licence and undertake an “orderly” voluntary liquidation of that aspect of its business.

“On the basis of the information presently available, Holdun Family Office respectfully submits that a court-supervised winding up under section 131 of the Investment Funds Act 2019 would not be necessary or proportionate in Holdun Family Office’s case,” Mr Dunn wrote.

“Nor would such course of action be beneficial to the interest of all those involved, and would incur unnecessary expenses and not be the best use of judicial time. Holdun Family Office instead proposes to surrender its licence and complete an orderly voluntary winding up of the corporate entity, subject to such reporting and oversight as the Commission considers appropriate….

“For any avoidance of doubt, nothing in this letter should be taken as an admission of breach, liability, or regulatory non-compliance, and Holdun Family Office reserves all rights while continuing to engage constructively with the Commission.”

This, though, did not appease the Securities Commission. Ms Rolle, in a July 14, 2026, letter, responded: “A voluntary wind-up would be incongruent with the current circumstances of this matter…. There remains an ongoing investigation into Holdun Family Office emanating from clients’ allegations, and from Holdun Family Office’s activities which led to the court-supervised winding up of the two funds that are currently under the court’s supervision.

“In other words, matters giving rise to the funds’ winding-up under the court’s supervision are inextricably linked to Holdun Family Office’s activities and so, in the Commission’s estimation, Holdun Family Office’s winding-up must follow the same course of action. Given the foregoing, the Commission is unable to agree to a voluntary winding up or a process that takes Holdun Family Office outside of a court-supervised process.”

The Securities Commission, in its late August winding-up petition, alleged that Holdun had “effected an unauthorised and/or incomplete surrender” of its licence for the Holdun Income Fund before transferring parts of its investment portfolio and operations to the Cayman Islands. Tribune Business reported in June this year how that fund has now been placed in court-supervised liquidation in the Cayman Islands.

“The company has demonstrated a consistent failure to properly manage and administer the assets of the Funds entrusted to its care,” the Securities Commission said of Holdun generally, “with such deficiencies manifest in its repeated failures to satisfy investor redemption requests in a timely manner, or at all, to the detriment of investors and in contravention of the standards expected of a regulated investment fund manager….

“In addition, the Commission notes that a principal issue arising in relation to Holdun Opportunity Fund was the material alteration of and/or deviation from its investment strategy, resulting in exposure to high-risk investments without proper disclosure to, or informed consent of, investors.

“These actions were taken to the clients’ detriment. The Commission notes that the mentioned deviation heavily contributed to the deterioration of the funds’ liquidity position, resulting in the inability to satisfy redemptions as they fell due,” the Bahamian regulator added.

“In the course of its investigation, the Commission obtained information giving rise to significant concerns about the operation and administration of the funds managed by Holdun Family Office. The information includes transactions with the funds’ assets in a manner that was, at the least, highly negligent.

“The activity also involved calculating fund net asset values (NAVs) based on assets that did not exist, charging management fees from the funds in circumstances where such charges were unjustifiable, and making loans to companies beneficially owned by a director - some of which had ceased operations so were in no position to repay those loans.” The Securities Commission added that its probe is ongoing.

Bahamian accountant James Gomez and Noreen Taylor, managing partner and partner at Ecovis Bahamas, respectively, have been proposed as Holdun Family Office’s liquidators.

Footnote

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Headline

Commission says three separate

funds unable to repay investors