Page 23 - Bloomberg Businessweek-October 29, 2018

Bloomberg Businessweek October 29, 2018

“HE ALWAYS SAW THE BEST IN PEOPLE.
WHICH WASN’T A GREAT THING ALL THE TIME”

to develop an online trivia game. Sherman agreed to invest, III. THE HARD FACTS
then alleged in court that his money had disappeared.
According to legal filings, Sherman had been connected to Honey Sherman arrived at Apotex’s headquarters, a low
Rootenberg by Myron Gottlieb, the co-founder of Livent, office block enveloped in blue-green glass and just off a roar-
a theater production company that collapsed in one of ing highway on Toronto’s outskirts, late in the afternoon of
Canada’s most spectacular accounting frauds; Gottlieb and Dec. 13. It was one of the last days she planned to be in the
Rootenberg had met in prison. Then there was Sherman’s city before heading to the family’s holiday home in Florida.
long and intimate friendship and business relationship with Barry was scheduled to join her there later in the month. The
a notorious Toronto restaurateur, energy-drink promoter, purpose of her visit to Apotex was much closer to her heart
and B-movie auteur named Frank D’Angelo. than to her husband’s: a discussion with the builders of their
Colleagues tried to counsel caution, without success. new house in Forest Hill, a central neighborhood that’s home
Sherman seemed to delight in indulging the many suitors to a substantial portion of Canada’s business elite. Barry had
who wanted a piece of his fortune. “He always saw the best little desire to move, but Honey was determined to design a
in people,” said a longtime confidant who asked not to be dream home closer to the social action. The house previously
identified. “Which wasn’t a great thing all the time.” occupying their new triangular lot had already been demol-
Sherman’s benevolence to people he felt were on his ished so construction could begin.
side was matched by a fierce determination to punish those Honey got home before Barry, who often stayed at his
who crossed him. He was one of the most prolific litigants office well into the night. Colleagues received a routine email
in Canadian history, engaged sometimes in as many as from him that evening about a drug Apotex had in devel- 51
50 simultaneous actions—many necessary for generic devel- opment, according to a person familiar with the message’s
opment, many not. contents. No one at the company heard from Sherman over-
One particularly famous case dragged on for the better night, which was somewhat unusual because he often had
part of a decade and helped inspire John Le Carré’s novel trouble sleeping. Nor did he appear at his office the next day,
The Constant Gardener. It began in the mid-1990s, when a Thursday—similarly abnormal, if hardly the stuff of panic.
University of Toronto hematologist named Nancy Olivieri Sherman had no entourage to speak of, declining to employ
was running clinical trials for an Apotex drug designed to a bodyguard, driver, or personal assistant beyond a longtime
treat thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder. As the tri- corporate secretary, so his movements were his own. The
als progressed, she came to believe the drug might be inef- same was true of Honey, who wasn’t seen that day either.
fective and unsafe for patients. The company threatened to Toronto police responded to the 911 call at 11:44 a.m. on
sue if she disclosed her concerns and, according to a later Friday. Initially they reported only that two people had been
inquiry by Canada’s national federation of university teach- found dead. A provincial minister confirmed on Twitter later
ers, criticized the quality of Olivieri’s work to her superiors. that day that the deceased were the Shermans. Police told
Discussions about an Apotex donation to the university that journalists gathered in the snow outside the Old Colony Road
would have been the largest in its history were suspended, house that there were no indications of forced entry and that
the report said, and Olivieri was removed from her position they weren’t seeking suspects. On Saturday, Canadian media
as director of a clinical program for hemoglobin disorders. reported that the deaths were being treated as a possible
(The drug was ultimately approved in the U.S. and Canada. murder-suicide, committed by Barry Sherman.
Subsequent reviews suggested Olivieri had acted properly; The couple’s children—Lauren, 43; Jonathon, 35;
a legal battle between her and Apotex was settled.) Alexandra, 32; and Kaelen, 27—were outraged by the sug-
Sometimes, merely winning wasn’t enough for Sherman, gestion. Late that day they issued a statement saying their
even against opponents who lacked his resources. At the parents’ characters were “totally inconsistent with the
time of his death, he was at the tail end of a bitter legal battle rumors regrettably circulated in the media” and urging
with Louis Winter’s children, who claimed Sherman had police to conduct a “thorough, intensive and objective crim-
concealed a 1960s agreement that they said entitled them to inal investigation.” The notion of Sherman as a murderer
20 percent of Apotex. Sherman won, and on Dec. 6 a judge did seem deeply strange, not least for reasons of physical
ordered the Winter siblings to pay him C$300,000 (around capacity. Some friends joked darkly that if it had been a
$230,000) in legal costs. The day after Sherman and his wife murder-suicide, it would more likely have been the other
were buried, his lawyers filed his appeal for more money. way around.