BIC Fund: $12 million owed, $57,000 left

Be In Christ Church of Canada is the central body of a group of Christian churches — a federal not-for-profit incorporated in 1983, continued under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act in 2014, and a registered charity.

The BIC Fund is a separate not-for-profit corporation, incorporated in 1998. Its stated purpose is "to receive contributions on behalf of contributors who are receptive to the practices of the corporation and to loan money to legal entities that the corporation deems appropriate on terms deemed appropriate", per Endorsement of Justice Black, May 15, 2026, paras. 2–6.

In practice it was a savings-and-loan for a denomination. Members deposited money; the Fund lent it to congregations that needed capital for property, construction or major renovations; the congregations repaid with interest; and depositors earned interest and could redeem their deposits on three days' notice, per Endorsement, May 15, 2026, paras. 8–9.

On May 15, 2026, Justice Black appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as receiver over it.

Who the money belongs to

As at March 31, on information produced by the Fund itself, aggregate deposit liabilities were approximately $12 million, owed to several hundred depositors, per Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 11:

• approximately $7,708,547.11 owing to individual depositors
• approximately $1,769,684.15 owing to congregant members and affiliated ministries
• approximately $2,580,132.31 owing to the Denomination itself

The denomination's own audited financial statements for 2025 record $1,622,567 invested in fixed-interest earning deposits with the Fund, earning 4.00%, per Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 10.

Two-thirds of the money is individuals'. This is not an institutional creditor group.

The April 2 meeting

The Fund has been "directed, operated and managed" by Robert Leadley since it was established in 1998. He has served as its Treasurer and Director for almost three decades, per Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 7.

In April 2026, concerns mounted over the inability of two depositors to obtain redemption of their deposits.

On April 2, 2026, at a meeting with certain of the denomination's board and senior staff, Mr. Leadley made a series of disclosures. What follows is the endorsement's summary of what he said at that meeting; no trial has taken place and the court made no findings of fact beyond those required for interlocutory relief.

He disclosed that he had caused the great majority of the Fund's assets to be invested in a single private for-profit entity, Duroair, in which he had a majority interest, per Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 13.

He admitted the investment involved a "very unwise" comingling of Fund assets with his personal business interests, and that he had been forced to sell Duroair below what he believed to be its market value, with the proceeds staged over three years. The expected return of capital had been further delayed by the death of his business partner and by litigation in North Carolina, per Endorsement, May 15, 2026, paras. 14–15.

He estimated that approximately $3,000,000 in further proceeds may flow to the Fund, in stages and contingent on the outcome of that litigation — "but that in any event the aggregate proceeds will be insufficient to satisfy the Fund's Deposit liabilities", per Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 16.

The statements

The paragraph that will matter most to the people who put money in is the next one:

Mr. Leadley also admitted that he had concealed these facts from Depositors and the Denomination to avoid alarming Depositors and triggering redemption requests, and that the concealment had been achieved in part by causing the Fund to credit interest to Depositors at 4% per annum and to issue quarterly account statements showing accruing interest at a time when there were no investment returns to fund such interest.

Per Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 17.

Every depositor who received a quarterly statement received a document that showed their savings growing. On the admission recorded here, the growth shown had nothing behind it.

And on his own ability to make it right:

Mr. Leadley advised that he had "no money" to repay Depositors, that his assets were all held in his wife's name, and that he "did not know" what could be done.

Per Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 18.