Bernard Charles "Barry" Sherman, (February 25, 1942 – December 13, 2017) was a Canadian businessman and
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
who was chairman and CEO of
Apotex Inc. With an estimated net worth of US$3.2 billion at the time of his death, according to ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'', Sherman was the 12th-wealthiest man in Canada.
Another publication, ''
Canadian Business
''Canadian Business'' is the longest-publishing business magazine based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and founded in 1927. The print edition terminated in the end of 2016. Beginning in January 2017, the magazine was published online only.
In Oct ...
'', stated his fortune at
CA$4.77 billion, ranking him the 15th richest man in Canada.
Sherman, a
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...
graduate with a doctorate in engineering from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
, got his start in the pharmaceutical business in the 1960s, when the estate of his uncle
Louis Lloyd Winter let him run
Empire Laboratories, the late uncle's drug company. This eventually led Sherman to form Apotex, where he earned a reputation among both competitors and government regulators for extreme combativeness, often including
litigation
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
. Sherman's four cousins, who were supposed to have received five-percent
stakes in Empire, later sued Sherman unsuccessfully over his sale of the company.
In 1971, Sherman married his wife Honey, who would later rise to prominence in Canadian philanthropy, serving on the boards of several prominent charities. The two were found dead in their home in late 2017. Initially investigators from the
Toronto Police Service
The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police ser ...
considered the deaths a
murder-suicide, a conclusion widely disputed in the media.
[ In April 2019, the police said they had a "working theory" of the case and an "idea of what happened",][ and as of May 2022 the investigation was "active and ongoing".
]
Early life and education
Barry Sherman was born into a Jewish family in Toronto to Herbert Dick "Hyman" Sherman, a business partner for a zipper company, and Sara "Sarah" Sherman, an occupational therapist after her husband's death. His grandparents from both sides had fled persecution of Jews in Russia and Poland. Sherman's father died from a heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...
when Bernard was ten years old.
Sherman won a national physics contest while attending the Forest Hill Collegiate Institute
Forest Hill Collegiate Institute (FHCI) is a semestered public high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Forest Hill neighbourhood. Having about 900 students and 55 teachers, it is part of the Toronto District School Board. Pr ...
and graduated with top marks. In the summer of 1958, he signed up for a Canadian Army
The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command (military formation), command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases acr ...
organized student militia, but found he didn't like submitting to authority. The same year, he entered the University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...
's (U of T) engineering science program, at age 16 he was one of the youngest students ever to join the University’s Engineering Science program. Sherman later wrote that he chose that program specifically because it was reputedly the university's hardest.
During summers, Sherman worked for his uncle, Louis Lloyd Winter, at Winter's company Empire Laboratories, then Canada's largest wholly owned pharmaceutical company. Sherman worked as a driver, primarily picking up urine samples for pregnancy test
A pregnancy test is used to determine whether a female is pregnant or not. The two primary methods are testing for the female pregnancy hormone (human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)) in blood or urine using a pregnancy test kit, and scanning with u ...
s. When his uncle would travel, Sherman often helped watch over the operations.
Sherman graduated from U of T in 1964 with the highest honours in his class, and received the university's Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields.
The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...
for his thesis. He then enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
, from which he received a PhD in astrophysics
Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the he ...
in 1967.
Career
Sherman later recalled that his interest in business as career was piqued when he was aged 10, when his father brought him to work at his zipper factory in downtown Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...
and gave Sherman some zippers to count and box. He later wrote that his father was surprised at how well he did, filling "more than would have been done in the same time by any of his paid staff". He also recalled feeling insulted when his father counted them.
In 1967, after completing his PhD, Sherman purchased Empire Laboratories from the executor
An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, may sometimes be used.
Overview
An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker of a ...
of the estate of Louis Lloyd Winter and his wife, Beverley. The couple had died seventeen days apart in November 1965, leaving four orphaned young children: Paul Timothy, Jeffrey Andrew, Kerry Joel Dexter, and Dana Charles. Empire had been the first company to secure the compulsory rights to manufacture Hoffmann-La Roche
F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX ...
's Valium (diazepam
Diazepam, first marketed as Valium, is a medicine of the benzodiazepine family that acts as an anxiolytic. It is commonly used to treat a range of conditions, including anxiety, seizures, alcohol withdrawal syndrome, muscle spasms, insomnia, ...
) in Canada, and was one of the country's largest manufacturers of Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfize ...
's Vibramycin ( doxycycline), Upjohn Company
The Upjohn Company was a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm founded in 1886 in Hastings, Michigan, by Dr. William E. Upjohn who was an 1875 graduate of the University of Michigan medical school. The company was originally formed to make ''friabl ...
's Orinase (tolbutamide
Tolbutamide is a first-generation potassium channel blocker, sulfonylurea oral hypoglycemic medication. This drug may be used in the management of type 2 diabetes if diet alone is not effective. Tolbutamide stimulates the secretion of insulin b ...
), and the dietary sweetener saccharin
Saccharin (''aka'' saccharine, Sodium sacchari) is an artificial sweetener with effectively no nutritional value. It is about 550 times as sweet as sucrose but has a bitter or metallic aftertaste, especially at high concentrations. Saccharin ...
. Winter's estate allowed Sherman to buy a majority stake in Empire and run it only on the condition that the four Winter children be allowed to work for the company when they reached 21, with the option to buy five-percent stakes in the company two years later, with 15-year royalties on four of its patented products. The agreement would be voided if Sherman sold Empire.
That voiding happened in 1969. Sherman worked out a deal to swap shares with Empire's largest customer that put it in control of the company. In 1970 he invested in the American firm Barr Laboratories with US-based partners, became its largest shareholder
A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal ...
and served as Barr's president. He would eventually control a third of Barr's stock. Barr won the first rights to manufacture generic versions of Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly (July 8, 1838 – June 6, 1898) was an American soldier, pharmacist, chemist, and businessman who founded the Eli Lilly and Company pharmaceutical corporation. Lilly enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War and r ...
's Prozac
Fluoxetine, sold under the brand names Prozac and Sarafem, among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is used for the treatment of major depressive disorder, obsessive–compulsive disord ...
. Today, Barr is a part of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (also known as Teva Pharmaceuticals) is an Israeli multinational pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel. It specializes primarily in generic drugs, but other business interests include ...
, the world's largest generic drugmaker, following Teva's acquisition of Barr in 2008.
In January 1972, Sherman and Ulster Limited sold Empire to the Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
-based Canadian operations of publicly traded International Chemical and Nuclear Corporation (ICN) of California, for 57,000 shares (Valeant Pharmaceuticals
Bausch Health Companies Inc. (formerly Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.) is a Canadian multinational specialty pharmaceutical company based in Laval, Quebec, Canada. It develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products and ...
). This transaction voided his arrangement with the Winter estate. A year later, Sherman started Apotex
Apotex Inc. is a Canadian pharmaceutical corporation. Founded in 1974 by Barry Sherman, the company is the largest producer of generic drugs in Canada, with annual sales exceeding . By 2016, Apotex employed over 10,000 people as one of Canada's l ...
with a few former Empire personnel; it was incorporated in 1974. This privately owned and Sherman-controlled company claims to be Canada's largest domestic pharmaceutical manufacturer. Sherman also became involved in nutraceutical
A nutraceutical or bioceutical is a pharmaceutical alternative which claims physiological benefits. In the US, "nutraceuticals" are largely unregulated, as they exist in the same category as dietary supplements and food additives by the FDA, unde ...
manufacturing and other businesses, founding the National Institute of Nutrition (NION) with Richard Kashenberg. He later sold NION to Schiff and continued on to Apotex.
By 2016, Apotex employed over 10,000 people as one of Canada's largest drug manufacturers, with over 260 products selling in over 115 countries. Revenues were about $1.5 billion annually.
Other businesses
Sherman also personally invested in other, non-pharmaceutical businesses. Often these had dubious prospects and turned out to be fraud
In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...
ulent schemes. For example, Sherman put money into a yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
-chartering company which turned out to be a shell corporation
A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or ...
that had never bought any yachts. Later, he bought a majority stake in a company that sold a nutritional supplement
A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement one's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources or that are synthetic in orde ...
marketed by American fraudster Kevin Trudeau. In 1996, when US regulators began investigating the fraud claims would later lead to Trudeau's imprisonment, Sherman sold half his stake to the Apotex Foundation. Sherman's associates felt he was often too generous and trusting with these businesses, failing to do proper due diligence
Due diligence is the investigation or exercise of care that a reasonable business or person is normally expected to take before entering into an agreement or contract with another party or an act with a certain standard of care.
It can be a ...
.
For fifteen years, Sherman partnered with Frank D'Angelo
Frank D'Angelo (born April 23, 1959) is a Canadian entrepreneur in the food and restaurant industry, and in entertainment. D'Angelo has made several feature-length films through his In Your Ear Productions. He is also the founder of D'Angelo Br ...
, a fruit-juice maker who was trying to branch out into other businesses. The two produced the Cheetah Power Surge energy drink and started Steelback Brewery
Steelback Brewery was a Canadian based and owned brewery, located in Tiverton, Ontario, on the shores of Lake Huron.
History
The start
Steelback Brewery was started in September, 2002 by Frank D'Angelo while looking for expansion space for his ...
; when D'Angelo Brands went bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...
in 2007, Sherman lost C$100 million. Sherman continued backing D'Angelo's filmmaking venture even after D'Angelo was arrested on sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, whi ...
and obstruction of justice
Obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, is an act that involves unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investigators, or other gov ...
charges, later dropped, in 2009. Sherman's money financed all eight films D'Angelo made through 2013.
In the late 2010s, Sherman worked with another man later convicted of fraud, Shaun Rootenberg. The two had been introduced by a mutual friend, Cineplex Odeon
Cineplex Inc. (formerly Cineplex Galaxy) is a Canadian movie theatre and family entertainment centre chain headquartered in Toronto.
The company was formed in 2003 via the acquisition of Loews Cineplex's Canadian operations (which included ...
co-founder Myron Gottlieb, who had met Rootenberg in prison following his conviction for fraud in the collapse of Livent
The Live Entertainment Corporation of Canada, better known as Livent, was a theatre production company based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1989 by former Cineplex Odeon executives Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb, the company initially found ...
. Rootenberg persuaded Sherman to invest in his development of an online trivia game; Sherman later filed a lawsuit against Rootenberg, alleging the latter had simply pocketed the money.
Personal life
Sherman married Honey Reich in 1971, a fellow U of T graduate of Austrian nationality who was the daughter of Polish Jewish
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
survivors. The couple had four children: a son, Jonathon, and three daughters, Lauren, Alexandra and Kaelen.
While Sherman socialized regularly with Honey, he was known to his friends and family as a workaholic. At the social events they attended, she was more outgoing while he often kept to himself and discussed mainly his businesses. The Sherman family frequented a ski club on winter weekends, but while Honey and the children availed themselves of the trails, Sherman remained in the lodge poring over documents. Similarly, Sherman did not play golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
and would spend vacations reviewing business material.
Even as his fortune grew, Sherman drove his cars until they reached an advanced state of disrepair; a friend worried that one, a Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a series of American automobiles manufactured by Ford. In continuous production since 1964, the Mustang is currently the longest-produced Ford car nameplate. Currently in its sixth generation, it is the fifth-best selli ...
, was so decrepit that it was leaking carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide ( chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...
into the passenger compartment. For his 50th birthday, Honey gave him a red sports car with a bow on it in front of assembled guests. He asked her to take it back, and she did.
Philanthropy
Sherman, with his wife, donated a record $50 million to the United Jewish Appeal
The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was a Jewish philanthropic umbrella organization that existed from its creation in 1939 until it was folded into the United Jewish Communities, which was formed from the 1999 merger of United Jewish Appeal (UJA), ...
, and other Jewish charities, despite Sherman himself being an atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
. The couple provided funds to build a major addition to the Baycrest Health Sciences
Baycrest Health Sciences is a research and teaching hospital for the elderly in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto. Baycrest was originally founded in 1918 as the Toronto Je ...
geriatric centre, and to other community centres in the Toronto area. The couple were also major donors to the United Way
United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit organization, nonprofit fundraising affiliates. United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public, prior to 2016.
United Way o ...
. The Apotex Foundation had donated over $50 million worth of medicines to disaster zones since 2007. Sherman personally often loaned money to Apotex employees who needed help.
After his death, ''Maclean's'' found that Sherman himself, through one of the many companies he controlled, had made large donations to several of the foundations he had set up in his or Apotex's name. Under Canadian tax law, this entitled him to an equivalent tax credit
A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "disc ...
. The foundations were then allowed to loan him back money and did, loaning him almost the total of the $6 million he gave, an unusually high amount. The leader of a private charity watchdog group said Sherman was "using his foundations as a piggy bank" and called on Canadian lawmakers to change the law.
Reputation and personality
Sherman had a mixed reputation, or what the ''National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'' called "Two Legacies". Sherman and his wife were described by Toronto Mayor John Tory
John Howard Tory (born May 28, 1954) is a Canadian politician who has served as the 65th and current mayor of Toronto since 2014.
After a career as a lawyer, political strategist and businessman, Tory ran as a mayoral candidate in the 2003 ...
as "kind, good people", and he was widely praised for his philanthropic giving. On the other hand, Morton Shulman
Morton Shulman (25 April 1925 – 18 August 2000) was a Canadian politician, businessman, broadcaster, columnist, coroner, and physician. He was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1925 to a Jewish family. He first came to fame as Ontario's Chief Coron ...
, a physician and former member of the Ontario Parliament who late in his life fought Sherman over drug development, called him "the only person I have ever met with no redeeming features whatsoever". A ''Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to:
People
* Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
* Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
* Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ...
'' writer reporting on Sherman's death said that some rival generic drug company executives used "unprintable" language to describe him.
University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...
law professor Amir Attaran described Sherman as "a deplorable human being" in reference to his business practices, claiming that he gouged Canadians with high drug prices: "Canadians pay more for generic drugs than almost every other country. He sought to manipulate our system to enrich himself and impoverish Canadian patients who used his drugs." Attaran accused Sherman of crossing ethical lines concerning intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
rights to "fight as many as 100 battles at a time in court to challenge drug patents and make way for Apotex's generic prescriptions" with little end benefit to consumers. By contrast, Sherman saw Apotex as a force for good, saying, "If we're thieves, we're Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is de ...
s."
As told in Jeffrey Robinson's 2001 book ''Prescription Games: Money, Ego and Power Inside the Pharmaceutical Industry'', Sherman himself acknowledged the long-running conflict between Apotex and the major pharmaceutical companies over drug patents, saying, "The branded drug companies hate us. They have private investigators on us all the time. The thought once came to my mind: why didn't they just hire someone to knock me off?" Private investigators working for the German company Bayer AG
Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceutica ...
, one of the world's largest drug companies, reportedly considered planting illegal drugs in Sherman's car during an operation to lure Apotex employees into informing on whether the company was knowingly infringing Bayer's patents.
Litigation
Apotex was much more likely than other Canadian companies to respond to adverse regulatory decisions by suing the government agencies involved. At the time of Sherman's death, the company had filed an estimated 1,200 cases against the government in Federal Court; a spokesman for Health Canada, named as a defendant in dozens of Apotex's suits, complained that the company's litigiousness had cost Canadian taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees. "It was intimidating to come back from lunch and find an urgent memo on your desk saying you’ve got to get over to Federal Court because Sherman was at it again," recalled Michele Brill-Edwards, former Health Canada head of drug regulation. "He quickly demonstrated that in fact you can bully the government and you can intimidate." One of Apotex's lawsuits, over the company's application to make a generic version of the antidepressant
Antidepressants are a class of medication used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain conditions, and to help manage addictions. Common side-effects of antidepressants include dry mouth, weight gain, dizziness ...
Trazodone
Trazodone, sold under many brand names, is an antidepressant medication. It is used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and difficulties with sleep. The medication is taken orally.
Common side-effects include dry mouth, fee ...
, took thirty years until the Federal Court of Appeal
The Federal Court of Appeal (french: Cour d'appel fédérale) is a Canadian appellate court that hears cases concerning federal matters.
History
Section 101 of the Constitution Act, 1867 empowers the Parliament of Canada to establish "ad ...
ruled that the government had mishandled it. Sherman himself once told employees that Apotex was primarily a legal company that sold medications on the side. After his death, ''Maclean's'' wrote: "He was a billionaire driven to litigation less by money than something more primal: a sense of righteous certitude that propelled him to prevail at any cost."
Competitors and regulators were not the only targets of Apotex's litigation. In the 1990s, following an extension of patents that made generic drugs less profitable to produce, the company began exploring making branded drugs of its own. One of them was deferiprone, a potential treatment for the blood disorder
Hematologic diseases are disorders which primarily affect the blood & blood-forming organs. Hematologic diseases include rare genetic disorders, anemia, HIV, sickle cell disease & complications from chemotherapy or transfusions.
Myeloid
* Hemog ...
thalassemia
Thalassemias are inherited blood disorders characterized by decreased hemoglobin production. Symptoms depend on the type and can vary from none to severe. Often there is mild to severe anemia (low red blood cells or hemoglobin). Anemia can resul ...
. Trials were overseen by U of T hematologist
Hematology ( always spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the produc ...
Dr. Nancy Olivieri
Nancy Fern Olivieri (born 1954) is a prominent Toronto haematologist and researcher with an interest in the treatment of haemoglobinopathies. She is best known for a protracted struggle with the Hospital for Sick Children and the pharmaceutical c ...
at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. By 1998, Olivieri had serious concerns as to whether the drug was effective or safe, and broke a confidentiality agreement
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish ...
with Apotex to publish her findings. Apotex responded by attempting to damage her reputation and filing a lawsuit; U of T took the company's side rather than risk the loss of a $20 million donation for a planned research center and removed Olivireri from her position as head of a research program on hemoglobin
Hemoglobin (haemoglobin BrE) (from the Greek word αἷμα, ''haîma'' 'blood' + Latin ''globus'' 'ball, sphere' + ''-in'') (), abbreviated Hb or Hgb, is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein present in red blood cells (erythrocyte ...
disorders. Eventually Olivieri regained her position after years of her own litigation; the incident helped inspire John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
's novel ''The Constant Gardener
''The Constant Gardener'' is a 2001 novel by British author John le Carré. The novel tells the story of Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose activist wife is murdered. Believing there is something behind the murder, he seeks to uncover the t ...
''.
In 2011, Sherman's cousins, the Winter children, sued him for allegedly never paying them royalties and equity in Apotex, contending that he had used the proceeds from the 1972 sale of Empire Laboratories to purchase Apotex in 1973. The cousins sought a twenty-percent interest in Apotex or damages
At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised a ...
of $1 billion. Sherman responded by withdrawing millions of dollars in financial assistance to his cousins. The Winter children contended that Sherman "had offered the financial assistance in the first place in order to make the cousins dependent on him, and to keep them from learning about their rights to the business", an allegation Sherman denied. In September 2017, an Ontario Superior Court
The Superior Court of Justice (French: ''Cour supérieure de justice'') is a superior court in Ontario. The Court sits in 52 locations across the province, including 17 Family Court locations, and consists of over 300 federally appointed judges.
...
justice ruled against the cousins, saying the case was "wishful thinking, and beyond fanciful." At the time of the judgement, a lawyer for the cousins said they would appeal, though no appeal occurred. Sherman died a few months later.
In 1996, after the Shermans' North York
North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a p ...
home was completed following five years of construction, the couple was dissatisfied with the work done on it. In particular, they claimed that the garage, a structure with a tennis court on top and a basement lap pool and hot tub, was faulty; Sherman called it a "disaster". He and his wife filed twelve separate suits against all the contractors; ultimately they would recover almost the entire estimated $2.3 million cost of building the house through favourable judgements.
A partial draft of his unpublished memoir, called ''Legacy of Thoughts'', was submitted as part of Sherman's motion for summary judgment
In law, a summary judgment (also judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition) is a judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full trial. Summary judgments may be issued on the merits of ...
in the lawsuit brought by his orphaned cousins. He described the manuscript as his observations on philosophy, Canadian politics and the pharmaceutical industry. Sherman did not believe in God, free will, altruism or morality. "I find no inconsistency in holding intellectually that life has no meaning, while the same time being highly motivated to survive and to achieve", he once said.
Sherman was targeted by the Canadian wing of the Jewish Defense League
The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a Jewish far-right religious-political organization in the United States and Canada, whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary". It has been classified as "a right wi ...
, a group on the FBI's terrorist watchlist, and had been sued by Israel's largest generic-drug maker, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (also known as Teva Pharmaceuticals) is an Israeli multinational pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel. It specializes primarily in generic drugs, but other business interests include ...
.
Lobbying
Sherman was also known for the vigor of his lobbying
In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, whic ...
efforts. When Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney ( ; born March 20, 1939) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993.
Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studied political ...
's government passed a law that extended patent protection for brand-name drug makers, Sherman complained that it would be destructive to smaller generic drugmakers and began supporting Jean Chrétien and the Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a l ...
, who had promised to review the law if they took power in the 1993 general election. Sherman also donated millions of dollars to U of T for a research center, contributions he withdrew when the letters the university wrote to the Mulroney government opposing the new regulations did not result in those regulations being withdrawn.
In 2006, still unsatisfied, Sherman supported the campaign of Joe Volpe
Giuseppe "Joe" Volpe (born September 21, 1947) is a Canadian politician. He represented the Ontario riding of Eglinton-Lawrence as a member of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 until 2011, when he lost his seat t ...
to become Liberal leader. He and other Apotex executives gave $108,000 to Volpe's campaign, all giving the legal maximum of $5,400. This caused some controversy when some of those donations were found to have come from minor children of the executives, although ultimately Elections Canada
Elections Canada (french: Élections Canada)The agency operates and brands itself as Elections Canada, its legal title is Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (). is the non-partisan agency responsible for administering Canadian federal electi ...
ruled that no laws were broken.
At the time of his death, Sherman, legally registered as a lobbyist, was under investigation because of a fundraiser he had held for Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since ...
in April 2015, allegedly contrary to Canada's lobbying rules. Sherman filed a lawsuit in May 2016 attempting to quash the investigation before it was finished, a legally unprecedented move in Canadian history. "There is basis to conclude that Mr. Sherman is in breach of ... the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct as a consequence of his involvement in the organization of a fundraising event for the (Liberal Party)," according to Phil McIntosh, director of investigations at the Office of the Lobby Commissioner. If that had been proven, Sherman would have been banned from lobbying for five years.
Death
In 2017, the Shermans decided to sell their longtime home on Old Colony Road in North York and move to a new house they were building in Forest Hill
Forest Hill or Forrest Hill may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Forest Hill, New South Wales, a suburb of Wagga Wagga
* Forrest Hill, New South Wales, a suburb of Albury
* Forest Hill, Queensland
* Forest Hill, Victoria
** Forest Hill Chase Sh ...
, closer to downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont St ...
, where many of their friends and business associates lived. Honey, who according to D'Angelo had initiated the move, had purchased a corner lot in November 2016; the Shermans planned to demolish the existing house on the site. Plans for a replacement on file with the city called for a house with features such as a central swimming pool with retractable skylight and living quarters for staff. The fifteen variances required, including the house's depth, more than twice that allowed in the city's zoning
Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a s ...
, and a car stacker in the garage, were approved in June 2017.
Construction of the house, and Sherman's ultimately successful effort to recover legal fees from the Winters after their suit was decided in his favour, preoccupied the couple later in the year. They put the North York home on the market, asking almost $7 million, at the end of November, even though construction had not started on the Forest Hill house. On December 12, Honey missed a meeting of the Baycrest Centre Foundation board without notifying them beforehand, which was unusual for her. Reached by email, she said she was "dealing with some stuff".
The next day, the Shermans met at Apotex headquarters late in the afternoon, where they went over some design changes to the new house in Barry's office. Honey was planning to leave for a holiday vacation in Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...
a few days later; Barry was to join her a week later. It was the last time the couple were seen alive. Later that evening, after returning home, Sherman sent his Apotex staff a routine email about a drug the company was developing. He did not call anyone during that night, which they said was unusual because he frequently suffered from insomnia
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy ...
. The next day, December 14, he did not show up at Apotex; again this was out of the ordinary for him.
The next morning, December 15, neither Barry nor Honey was expected to be at home in the morning. The cleaning staff had already let themselves in with a recently installed lockbox when a pair of real estate agents arrived around mid-morning with a couple interested in the property. After showing them around the main story, the agents took the couple downstairs to the lap pool and hot tub. There, they discovered Barry and Honey's bodies on the floor next to the pool. Both of their necks were tied with leather belts to a metal railing slightly over a metre high around the pool. Barry was seated, his legs crossed, on the pool deck; Honey was on her side with a bruise on her face. Coats were pulled down over their shoulders restraining their arms; they were facing away from the water and fully clothed.
On the second anniversary of the case, the ''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
'' reported that the positions the bodies were found in nearly matched those of two 1970s-era "junk" sculptures of human figures posed sitting on speakers in the basement. Barry's right leg was crossed over his left, just like one, however Honey's legs were not in front of her as those on the corresponding sculpture had been.
The ''Star'' also reported that Honey's cell phone was found in a bathroom that, according to friends, she never used, suggesting she might have gone there in an attempt to summon help but was overpowered in the process. Similarly, Barry's gloves, as well as paperwork related to an inspection of the house, were left on the floor just outside the garage door, on the way to the basement pool. A window had been left open to allow a recently painted room to air out, and a basement door was unlocked, as apparently the Shermans frequently left it. Someone who may have known this, as well as the interior layout of the house, may have been able to escape through a neighbouring back yard after the crime, police said.
Investigation
The police were called. The deaths were treated as "suspicious" and the Toronto Police Service Homicide Squad took the lead in the investigation, because it was "most experienced in dealing with sudden unexpected deaths". Post-mortem examinations showed the cause of both deaths was "ligature neck compression", which is ligature strangulation
Strangling is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain. Fatal strangling typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and is one of two main ways that hangin ...
caused by binding or tying. Ligature strangulation is usually distinguished from hanging
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary' ...
by the strangling force being something other than the person's own body weight.
Toronto Police Service had previously told the news media that there was no indication of forced entry into the Sherman home and that their investigation did not include a search for any suspects. Although there was no note left by the deceased,
police sources told the ''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
'' on December 15 or 16, 2017, that they were "probing the possibility that they were a murder–suicide
A murder-suicide is an act in which an individual kills one or more persons either before or while killing themselves. The combination of murder and suicide can take various forms:
* Murder linked with suicide of a person with a homicidal idea ...
". Honey suffered face injuries and Barry did not, fueling initial police speculation she was the victim and Barry was not.
In response, friends noted that the house had nine entrances and both Barry and Honey would have been likely to let someone in who asked for help, no matter the time of day, even if they barely knew the person or they were a complete stranger. The Sherman children issued a statement urging the police to conduct a thorough criminal investigation and chastised the police for leaking a murder-suicide theory. They also contacted Toronto lawyer Brian Greenspan to retain a private investigator to look into the deaths. He hired Tom Klett, a retired Toronto Police detective who has worked in the homicide, drug, and intelligence bureaus. The family also hired Dr. David Chiasson, the retired chief forensic pathologist for Ontario, to conduct another autopsy.
The second autopsy established that the couple had been murdered.
In January 2018, the ''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
'' published an exclusive report based on anonymous sources from the family's investigation team who said that the deaths were murders: the couple was strangled by belts after their hands were tied. These investigators had not yet gained access to the Sherman home. "People providing information for this story are not identified as they were not authorized to discuss the case," according to the ''Star''. When contacted by a reporter, a Toronto Police spokesman reiterated the position that they were treating the deaths as "suspicious". On January 26, Toronto Police advised the news media that their investigation concluded that the couple had been killed in a targeted attack. At the time, they would not discuss any possible suspects, but planned to interview everyone who had access to the home prior to the deaths via the lockbox that was previously installed by the real estate agent. The police investigation has encountered resistance at Apotex headquarters, with a police spokesman saying "Legal complexities in some executions have been challenging given the litigious nature of Barry Sherman's businesses, in particular the search and seizure of electronics in Barry Sherman's workspace at Apotex".
The police investigation was still continuing in September 2018 when detectives obtained seven search warrants in addition to the 21 previously obtained. Detective Dennis Yim told a court that "investigators are methodically reviewing material and pursuing different investigative avenues".
In late October 2018, lawyer Brian Greenspan announced that the family had offered a $10 million reward in the couple's homicide investigation for any information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of a suspect. At the same time, he complained about the police investigation, claiming that it had failed to collect important evidence. Police Chief Mark Saunders later told the news media that a forensic pathologist has been working on the case, in addition to over 50 officers, interviewing 200 witnesses and collecting over 2,000 hours of video surveillance from neighbouring homes. When asked if police would be willing to work with the independent experts to be convened by Greenspan, Saunders said he would if the group were to be accepted in a court proceeding.
By October 2018, police had obtained 37 warrants related to the investigation.
On April 25, 2019, the Toronto Police said they had a "working theory" of the case, and an "idea of what happened."
At the end of 2019, the private investigators working for the family closed their investigation. The following month, ''Star'' reporter Kevin Donovan, who had just published a book, ''The Billionaire Murders'' about the case, disclosed that investigators had revised their timeline of the case. While previous statements had suggested police believed the couple had been killed early on December 15, they now said the murders had occurred two days earlier, within hours of the Shermans returning home on the night of the 13th.
In April 2022, Toronto Police said the case was "unfortunately old", still in the investigation phase, and no charges have been filed against anyone. The Toronto Police asked the court to seal case documents from the press to protect the integrity of the investigation.
In December 2022, his son increased the reward to $35 million.
Motives and suspects
There has been speculation about who might have been responsible, particularly given Sherman's many business associates with criminal records and those who had been angered by his actions. He himself had acknowledged that an attempt could be made on his life. "For a thousand bucks paid to the right person, you can probably get someone killed", he told Jeffrey Robinson in an interview for his book in the late 1990s. "Perhaps I'm surprised that hasn't happened."
At the time of the homicides, Sherman had just won a ruling that the Winters owed him $300,000 in legal fees, less than he had asked for, for their lawsuit, itself dismissed three months earlier. After telling ''Bloomberg'' that he'd been informed he was a "prime suspect" and consulting with his lawyer, Kerry Winter allowed that he had not only the motive to kill his cousin but the opportunity, since he was working at the time as a construction supervisor and could set his own hours. He admitted to '' The Fifth Estate'' that he had imagined killing Sherman but says that he did not, and was watching ''Peaky Blinders
The Peaky Blinders were a street gang based in Birmingham, England, which operated from the 1880s until the 1910s. The group consisted largely of young criminals from lower- to middle-class backgrounds. They engaged in robbery, violence, racket ...
'' on Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
, then attending a Cocaine Anonymous Cocaine Anonymous (C.A.) is a twelve-step program formed in 1982 for people who seek recovery from drug addiction. It is patterned very closely after Alcoholics Anonymous, although the two groups are unaffiliated. While many C.A. members have bee ...
meeting that night.
Two weeks before the murders, Barry Sherman asked his son, Jonathan Sherman, to repay him tens of millions of dollars that Jonathan had borrowed for his storage business. Jonathan explained this was to get his father through a difficult financial situation, and his father committed to future funding when Barry's finances improved. The two had a close relationship both professionally and personally.
According to documents released by the court in January 2022, Barry owed $1 billion to other companies leading up to his death, which he said was not going to pay. Furthermore the documents revealed the estate of the Shermans is somehow part of the murder investigation.
Also mentioned as possibly having a motive to kill Sherman is Frank D'Angelo, given the long history between the two and the latter man's checkered legal history. In his interview with ''Bloomberg'', he said "The worst thing that could have happened to Frank D'Angelo is Barry dying" and expressed regret that he had not been able to save a man he regarded as a close friend. He believed that "somebody came to make Barry an offer he couldn't refuse, and he refused".
In November 2020, the Toronto police said that they had identified a 'person of interest
"Person of interest" is a term used by law enforcement in the United States, Canada, and other countries when identifying someone possibly involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. It has no le ...
'; then two days later clarified that it could be one person, or multiple people.
On December 14, 2021, Toronto police released security camera footage of a suspect. In the roughly 20-second video, a person dressed in dark clothing can be seen walking down a sidewalk on a snow-covered night in the neighbourhood. "The timing of this individual's appearance is in line with when we believe the murders took place," Detective Brandon Price told reporters. "Based on this evidence we are classifying this individual as a suspect."
Court documents released in January 2022 included statements by Honey Sherman's sister, Mary Shechtman, who suggested the person responsible for the murders was "making a statement" and that she believed the motive for the killings may have been religion. "The Shermans were strong supporters of Israel and Honey was very vocal about being Jewish," Shechtman said. "There were a lot of people of a certain ethnicity going through the house at a certain time and Honey would use phrases that were not politically correct." Shechtman said that six months before the murders, Honey had gone to a lecture "about stopping money from getting into Muslim fundamentalists' hands." In Shechtman's statement to police, she said Honey's belief was that "if the money were to be cut off from uslim fundamentaliststhey could bankrupt them and therefore the money could not be used for terror." Shechtman told police she believed "Barry was providing funding for this."
Legacy
In June 2019, persons close to the Shermans said Barry had planned to give to charity or invest much of his fortune. Trustees for the Sherman family fought to keep details of the estate secret. In Canada, court documents and related proceedings—including files that deal with an estate after death—are public. An Ontario Superior Court judge applied a "protective order" to the file, but the ''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
'', a newspaper and media company in Canada, appealed and won. The family appealed to the Supreme Court, but in June 2021, the Supreme Court upheld the unsealing.
See also
* List of Canadian Jews
*List of MIT alumni
This list of Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni includes students who studied as undergraduates or graduate students at MIT's School of Engineering; School of Science; MIT Sloan School of Management; School of Humanities, Art ...
* List of University of Toronto alumni
*List of unsolved murders
These lists of unsolved murders include notable cases where victims were murdered in unknown circumstances.
* List of unsolved murders (before 1900)
* List of unsolved murders (1900–1979)
* List of unsolved murders (1980–1999)
* List of unsol ...
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherman, Bernard
1942 births
2017 deaths
2017 murders in Canada
20th-century philanthropists
Businesspeople from Toronto
Canadian atheists
Canadian billionaires
Canadian murder victims
Deaths by strangulation
Governor General's Award winners
Jewish Canadian philanthropists
Male murder victims
Members of the Order of Canada
MIT Department of Physics alumni
MIT School of Engineering alumni
People murdered in Toronto
University of Toronto alumni
Unsolved murders in Canada
2017 in Toronto
Murder in Ontario