Canada

Bron, the finance and production company that backed films including Joker, Licorice Pizza, Bombshell and Judas and the Black Messiah, has filed for bankruptcy, its co-founder Aaron J. Gilbert said Wednesday, Deadline reported. In a letter to “friends, partners, team members and backers,” Gilbert wrote today that Bron — the parent company of Bron Studios and Bron Digital — had filed for creditor protection with the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Canada, where it is based, concurrent with chapter 15 in the U.S.

Perativ Holdings Ltd., a leading Canadian operator of ATMs, has filed for creditor protection after several years of operating losses, citing a pandemic-related decline in consumers’ use of cash, as well as two major thefts, the Globe and Mail reported. The company supplies banks with ATM management software and operates more than 7,000 “white label” ATMs. Such ATMs aren’t owned by banks, and are often located in small businesses that offer cash discounts or don’t accept credit payments.

An investor who allegedly kidnapped self-described crypto king Aiden Pleterski after investing $740,000 with him is asserting his innocence, iHeartRadio reported. Toronto police charged 39-year-old Akil Heywood, along with three others, with kidnapping Pleterski for ransom for three days last December. He has been released on bail for $10,000. Pleterski allegedly owes at least $35 million to cryptocurrency and foreign exchange investors, which petitioned the 24-year-old from Whitby, Ont., into bankruptcy almost a year ago.

Five men have been charged with kidnapping Ontario’s self-proclaimed ‘crypto king’ Aiden Pleterski in a bid to recoup their allegedly misappropriated investments, CBC Toronto has learned, the same day that a video of him visibly injured at the hands of kidnappers was shared with the outlet, Protos reported. 39-year-old Akil Heywood lost $740,000 in investments to the ‘crypto king’ and has been accused alongside four other men of kidnapping Pleterski last December.

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said in an interview with the Globe and Mail that banks that are prolonging amortization periods for mortgage holders are not significantly blunting the effects of monetary policy,  Reuters reported.

The Canadian dollar weakened to a three-week low against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday as Wall Street stocks fell and data showed Canada's trade balance swinging to a surprise deficit, Reuters reported. The loonie was trading 0.6% lower at 1.3358 to the greenback, or 74.86 U.S. cents, after touching its weakest intraday level since June 13 at 1.3369. "We had a dreadful trade number," said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex LLC.