Ontario Board Considers Taylor/Phoenix settlement

Date: Monday, July 22, 2002

The Phoenix Fixed Income Arbitrage LP, which collapsed in January 2000, continued its lingering administrative afterlife July 18. Phoenix haunted a hearing room of the Ontario Securities Commission that morning, when the OSC considered, and accepted, a staff recommendation to settle its case against (John) Blair Taylor. Pursuant to the settlement, the OSC has reprimanded Mr. Taylor, has banned him from serving as an officer or director of any registered investment counsel and portfolio manager for a period of two years, and has charged him C$7,500 in costs. Mr. Taylor was the director of operations and finance of Phoenix Research and Trading Corp. from July 1997 to October 1999, while Phoenix Research managed several hedge funds, Phoenix Fixed Income among them. In November 1999, he became the chief financial officer. The fixed-income fund collapsed in early January 2000 because one of its traders, Stephen Duthie, had accumulated a highly leveraged US $3.3 billion long position in U.S. 6% treasury notes due Aug. 15, 2009,