A feud between Apotex Inc. founder Barry Sherman and a group of relatives has heated up with allegations of a murder plot surfacing in court filings and attempts by Mr. Sherman to seize houses belonging to family members.
The battle became public in January when a group of cousins sued Mr. Sherman for $1.5-billion, alleging he violated a 40-year-old agreement to give them a stake in Apotex, Canada's largest generic drug maker.
Mr. Sherman founded Apotex in 1974, but the relatives allege its origins date back to several drug companies run in the early 1960s by Mr. Sherman's uncle, Louis Winter, who died in 1965.
Two of Mr. Winters' sons are leading the charge against Mr. Sherman.
Mr. Sherman has vigorously denied the allegations, calling them absurd, and he has hit back hard in court.
He has filed a lawsuit to recover $8-million in loans to one cousin, Kerry Winter, and alleged in court filings that Mr. Winter once suggested Mr. Sherman hatched a plot to murder his uncle. Mr. Winter has denied that.
Mr. Sherman has also appointed a receiver to seize four houses he helped Mr. Winter buy, including his family home in Toronto.
Mr. Winter is fighting to hang on to the houses. He recently lost a legal battle and is now appealing.
A fifth house in Vancouver belongs to Julia Winter, the wife of a cousin who died in 1995. According to allegations filed in court, Mr. Sherman has moved to revoke a $321,000 mortgage he holds on that house because Ms. Winter joined the others in the lawsuit.
Kerry Winter has alleged that Mr. Sherman is bullying the family and that he has gone back on a promise not to retaliate financially while the lawsuit over Toronto-based Apotex proceeded. "If he is permitted to continue, Mr. Sherman will cause me and my family irreparable harm," Mr. Winter said in an affidavit filed in court.
Mr. Sherman denied that his actions were tied to the lawsuit. "I'm doing it to enforce the security [of the properties] it's as simple as that," he said in an interview. In court filings, he said that a couple of the houses have been vacant and property taxes on three have not been paid for years.
Mr. Sherman began backing Mr. Winter in 1994 by arranging a $1.2-million line of credit to help him start a home renovation business. More money followed to Mr. Winter and others.
Mr. Sherman, who is much older than his cousins, said in court filings that he felt obliged to help the Winter children after their parents died in 1965.
The Winters had four children; one son has died, his widow and two sons are suing Mr. Sherman, and one son has stayed out of the battle altogether. The children were raised by another family and Mr. Sherman bought their father's drug business shortly after his death.
The cousins allege the purchase included a provision giving them an opportunity to work in the business when they were older as well as an ownership interest. They allege Mr. Sherman never told them about the provision and they only discovered it a few years ago.
Mr. Sherman said in his filings that the arrangement concerning the children contained a number of conditions that became unenforceable when he sold the Winter business in 1972. Apotex was a completely separate entity, he added.
However, he vowed at the time to help the others. "I said also, 'These are my cousins, and if some day if these boys want an opportunity or need help, I will be there,' " Mr. Sherman said in a deposition.
Mr. Sherman said in the deposition the children led troubled lives. "There is no way that any of these boys would have ended up being a suitable employee at Apotex Inc., but I have tried to just help them do what they wanted to do."
In the deposition, he said the family dispute arose around 2002. Mr. Winter accused him of being "involved in some conspiracy to murder their father and deprive them of their inheritance in the 1960s."
Mr. Sherman said he was "totally flabbergasted at this untrue allegation."
In an affidavit, Mr. Winter denied making the murder allegation. He also said that property taxes had gone unpaid because Mr. Sherman refused to advance money.