Peter Aceto has been appointed as president of Mortgage Alliance.The Globe and Mail
The former head of Tangerine Bank and the cannabis company CannTrust Inc. has been appointed as president of Mortgage Alliance, a subsidiary of M3 Financial Group.
Peter Aceto, a long-time banker who left the financial industry for a short and controversial stint in the cannabis business, will help lead Mortgage Alliance and its network of brokers across the country. The Toronto-based company is part of a group of companies owned by Montreal-based M3 and it operates alongside brands including Multi-Prêts Mortgages, Invis and Verico.
“Peter’s collaborative mindset … fintech focus and elevated breadth of industry knowledge will set Mortgage Alliance brokers up for continued success and growth moving forward in today’s ever-changing highly competitive marketplace,” M3 wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the appointment on Tuesday.
Mr. Aceto rose to prominence as chief executive of ING Direct Canada, which Bank of Nova Scotia acquired in 2012 for $3.1-billion and rebranded as Tangerine Bank. He fashioned himself as a thought leader, touring the speaking circuit and writing a management book titled Weology: How Everybody Wins When We Comes Before Me.
Mr. Aceto left Tangerine in 2017 and joined Ontario-based marijuana grower CannTrust as CEO in the summer of 2018. He quickly became embroiled in a major scandal that rocked the newly regulated cannabis industry.
After receiving a whistle-blower tip from an employee, Health Canada officials found that CannTrust had grown thousands of kilograms of cannabis in unlicensed rooms and staff had taken steps to hide the activity. Mr. Aceto and other Canntrust executives were made aware of unlicensed growing months before the Health Canada investigation, but did not disclose it to regulators or investors. Mr. Aceto was fired “with cause” by CannTrust’s board in July, 2019, shortly before Health Canada suspended the company’s cannabis cultivation licences.
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Mark Rendell