OSC damaged its credibility with case against Purpose founder Som Seif, lawyer argues

The Ontario Securities Commission has damaged its own credibility by accusing Purpose Investments Inc.’s founder Som Seif of greenwashing, his lawyer argued in a hearing that adjourned in Toronto on Friday.

Joseph Groia of Groia & Company, who is defending Mr. Seif against the OSC’s claims that he misled investors about Purpose’s environmental, social and governance initiatives, delivered his closing argument before a three-member adjudication panel of the provincial agency’s Capital Markets Tribunal.

The case carries the risk of multimillion-dollar fines against Purpose and career-ending sanctions against Mr. Seif. It was heard by the tribunal, an independent division of the OSC, over a total of 20 days.

OSC lawyers made their own closing arguments on Thursday before lawyers representing Purpose and Mr. Seif made their final submissions in the months-long proceeding.

Mr. Groia, who has decades of high-profile securities law experience and a reputation for aggressive courtroom tactics, accused the OSC of trying to “smear” Mr. Seif “simply in order to try and ruin Mr. Seif’s professional life.”

The OSC’s case hinges on whether multiple statements made by Purpose and Mr. Seif that ESG had been incorporated across the company’s investment process was equivalent to saying that ESG was in every Purpose fund.

Purpose, the OSC has argued, claimed in 2019 that funds equalling 75 per cent of its assets under management were already operating under its new ESG framework. But an analysis by OSC senior forensic accountant Jesse Dufour found the real figure was less than 35 per cent.

Lawyers for Purpose and Mr. Seif have challenged that conclusion, arguing repeatedly that the company never promised to include ESG into every one of its funds.

On Friday, Mr. Groia invoked the historic words of Joseph Welch, the lawyer who famously challenged U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954, to describe the impact that the regulator’s accusations have had on Mr. Seif.

“I fear he shall always bear a scar, needlessly inflicted by you,” Mr. Groia said. “Have you no sense of decency sir? Have you left no sense of decency?”

When the OSC first announced the charges in September, 2025, Mr. Seif said the regulator took the unusual step of naming him personally, and not just levelling the allegations against Purpose, in order to try to force a settlement.

“Corporations settle all the time because they are either guilty of something or they want it to get past them, and my view was this is too important and I need to say this is not an acceptable behaviour,” Mr. Seif said at the time.

During a combative exchange with OSC lawyer Alvin Qian while giving testimony in July, Mr. Seif insisted that “investment process does not mean investment funds.”

In his remarks on Friday, Mr. Groia questioned whether the case amounted to the best use of the OSC’s limited enforcement resources, estimating the action to have cost the regulator at least $1-million.

“The OSC really I think has lost its way in this case.”

In a 117-page written submission intended to supplement his oral closing argument, which was viewed by The Globe, Mr. Groia went further.

“After this case, whatever trust or confidence there may once have been in the OSC’s enforcement efforts; it has now been sorely shaken if not totally destroyed,” Mr. Groia wrote. “The OSC ought to be held accountable for its conduct and the harm it has caused.”

In a rare move that chief adjudicator Tim Moseley described as unprecedented in his experience, Mr. Seif delivered the final 10 minutes of closing arguments personally.

“I have put on a brave face, but this has been one of the hardest periods of my life,” Mr. Seif told the tribunal. “I came to this country as an immigrant. I carry a debt of gratitude to Canada, and it drives what I do every day. But I have also always carried a quiet feeling that I don’t fully belong in the rooms I have worked my way into.”

“To have my integrity questioned in public, by the regulator I’ve spent my career working alongside and trying to help, cut straight into that.”

Mr. Seif, who has pioneered new investment products in Canada such as exchange-traded funds, said the case “has put a chill on my own desire to engage.”

“We will move forward much more cautiously than before,” he said.

The tribunal targets issuing decisions within 90 days after final submissions are made. If the panel ultimately finds Purpose and/or Mr. Seif violated Ontario securities law, a separate sanctions hearing will be scheduled.