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In October 2024, Christopher DeVocht sued the brokerage division of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) for losses suffered due to poor financial advice.
At the end of 2019, Mr. DeVocht, a 29-year-old Canadian carpenter residing in Sooke, BC, allegedly put $ 88,000 into a brokerage account and bought Tesla stock and call options, when the price would have been in the $ 20 range. By February 2020 (when the price rose to over $ 50), his portfolio was worth $ 5.6 million and by June 2020, it was worth $ 26 million.
By April 2021, with the price around the $ 300 range, the portfolio had reached $ 186 million in value and peaked in November 2021 at $ 415 million, with the price over $ 400 per share.
In 2022, Tesla’s stock crashed (down to about $ 120) and his portfolio was wiped out though he had told his advisors he wanted to retire early, according to the claim.
No evidence of these gains and losses have been submitted in court at this time, though the case has received a lot of press coverage. He claims that, on RBC’s advice, he took out loans against the value of this portfolio. He had to sell to meet calls on his margin account.
My question is: When is enough enough?
$ 20 million? $ 50 million?
Is there no limit to human greed and stupidity?
RBC claims no wrongdoing, as they had advised him on a conservative portfolio.
But why did they not encourage him to keep taking profits along the way and bank some of his gains?
It seems they did manage to convince him to sell some shares, only to put the proceeds into RBC’s Charitable Gift Fund!!
The case is being heard in court in British Columbia.
