Calgary Investment Advisor Sentenced to 7 Years for $6M Fraud Scheme

CALGARY, Alberta — A Calgary investment advisor was sentenced to seven years in prison Thursday for orchestrating a $6 million fraud scheme and accepting a $104,000 secret commission from an oil and gas company. Jeffrey Ber, 42, was convicted last September on two counts of fraud over $5,000 and one count of accepting a secret commission.

Court of King's Bench Justice Eleanor Funk handed down the sentence, which includes six years for defrauding TD Bank and its clients, plus an additional year for the secret commission charge. The judge described Ber’s actions as “planned, deliberate, and executed over several weeks for personal gain.”

Ber’s crimes began in 2017 when he was working as an investment advisor at TD Bank. He sold millions of dollars of his clients’ existing investments and purchased $6 million worth of high-risk shares in Blackbird Energy, a Calgary-based oil and gas company. The move violated the risk tolerance levels of many clients’ accounts.

Ten days after the transactions, Ber cashed a $104,000 cheque from Blackbird Energy. Justice Funk noted that Ber had already spent lavishly in anticipation of the payment, including purchasing a $43,000 watch and making $30,000 in other purchases. He used $75,000 of the commission to pay off credit card debt.

TD Bank later reversed the transactions and reimbursed clients for their losses after discovering the fraud. The Crown sought $681,000 in restitution, but Justice Funk declined to issue a restitution order, citing an inability to quantify TD’s losses. Instead, she imposed a longer prison term.

Ber’s defense team, led by lawyers Alain Hepner and Kelsey Sitar, highlighted his cancer survival, lack of criminal record, and community volunteerism. However, Justice Funk emphasized the severity of the offenses, stating that Ber’s actions “undermine the trust and confidence that all investors should have with the people and institutions they entrust with their financial security.”

In addition to his prison sentence, Ber is required to disclose his fraud convictions before accepting any financial jobs or volunteer positions for the next 10 years. Justice Funk concluded her remarks by wishing Ber “good luck” as he enters a “difficult chapter” of his life.