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, yesterday vehemently denied “without reservation” the Securities Commission’s allegations that “fraud” or “dishonesty” were committed by itself or any representatives.

Holdun Family Office (Bahamas), which is facing a winding-up petition from the Bahamian regulator to place it in Supreme Court-supervised liquidation, in a series of e-mailed replies to Tribune Business questions pledged to “meet” and “answer the allegations in full” during court hearings while pointing out that all the claims are currently “untested” and not proven.

However Holdun, which is based at the Albany Financial Centre in south-western New Providence, said it will not contest the winding-up petition nor “stand in the way” of appointing the liquidators nominated by the Securities Commission when the matter is eventually heard by the Supreme Court. It added that this is because it had informed the regulator several months ago that it planned to exit its licensed wealth management business and surrender its licence and registration.

As a result, Holdun Family Office (Bahamas) said itself and the Securities Commission are in agreement over the final destination - its exit from a financial services niche that required it to be licensed and regulated. It added that the only differences were over the route and how to get there, with the regulator moving for a court-supervised winding-up and the provider seeking an “orderly” voluntary process that would not consume court time or costs.

Holdun Family Office (Bahamas), in a separate statement sent to this newspaper, said that after exiting and closing its licensed wealth management business it plans to focus on its core business and legacy roots of family office services and private investment activities. It is unclear, though, whether this plan faces potential headwinds from the Securities Commission’s active petition for a court-supervised liquidation.

The Bahamian capital markets and investments fund regulator, in justifying its action, alleged Holdun Family Office (Bahamas) had been “highly negligent” in managing investor assets. It also claimed that its investigation allegedly revealed the financial services provider was valuing investment funds it managed “based on assets that did not exist”.

Other allegations levied by the Securities Commission are that Holdun 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 came 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”.

Holdun, in its reply to Tribune Business, said: “Where the company parts company with the Commission is on a number of the factual allegations advanced in support of the petition… The company denies the allegations.

“What can be stated at the outset, and clearly, is that there was no fraud and there was no dishonesty by the company, by its chief executive [Brendan Holt Dunn] or by anyone acting for the company. Any suggestion otherwise is rejected without qualification and without reservation.

“The company will answer the allegations in full, before the court, in the proper form and on the evidence. That is where they belong and that is where they will be met.” Holdun added that it should be “crystal clear that these remain untested allegations at this stage, that the company challenges them, and that no court of law has determined any of them”.

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”. However, Holdun pledged to Tribune Business that it is “co-operating fully with the liquidators” of its former investment funds and will do so for as long as necessary.

And, in a separate release, it added that it had told the Securities Commission back in March 2026 of its plans to exit the licensed wealth management business and surrender its licence. “The company's immediate objective is a clean and orderly conclusion of the licensed business under the supervision of the court, with the liquidators given every co-operation they ask for,” Holdun said.

Mr Dunn, in a statement, said Holdun had taken the decision to close this aspect of its business before the Securities Commission launched its regulatory action. “Leaving the licensed business was our own decision, taken well before any of this began, and we are not standing in the way of an orderly conclusion. Our primary concern is that our clients are properly looked after and that the people who worked with us are treated fairly,” he added.

Earlier, he had described the move as an “evolution of our business strategy”, adding: “This allows us to focus our resources on the private investment activities that have always been at the core of our family office. Above all, our priority remains our clients, and we sincerely thank them for the trust they have placed in us over the years."

Holdun, too, had earlier said the licensed wealth management business - of which the three investment funds that are in liquidation are part - was just one element of its overall operations. It added that the exit, and winding-up, of this segment “will not materially affect the Holdun family’s wider investment activities or long-term strategic focus”, and it will continue to pursue private investment opportunities internationally.

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, becoming the longest-serving person to hold that office through a 26-year tenure that lasted until 1934.

Subsequently, in response to Tribune Business questions, Holdun said: “What is being wound up is a licensed Bahamian company. The company held a regulated licence that is no longer needed, a decision to give it up was already made, and the Commission was told so before any regulatory step was taken. That is the whole of it.

“The decision to leave the licensed wealth management business was the company's own. It was taken on a commercial assessment and communicated to the Securities Commission earlier this year, in advance of any regulatory step.

“The timing of the conclusion is now a matter for the Supreme Court and, once appointed, for the official liquidators. Matters affecting employees of the licensed entity will fall to the official liquidators in the same way, and it would not be right for the company to pre-empt them.”

Bahamian accountant James Gomez and Noreen Taylor, managing partner and partner at Ecovis Bahamas, respectively, have been proposed as Holdun Family Office (Bahamas) liquidators. They must now be approved by the Supreme Court.