Get Access to Print and Digital for $23.99 per year.
Subscribe for Full Access
July 2013 Issue [Report]

Glaciers for Sale

Adjust
A global-warming get-rich-quick scheme
by ,

The Canadian dentist behind what may or may not have been the world’s first global-warming Ponzi scheme either lives or does not live in Iceland. His name is Otto Spork, and when I first learned of him, in 2008, he had secured the water rights to a glacier north of Reykjavík and quit his dental practice to run the most successful hedge fund in Canada. His Toronto investment firm, Sextant Capital Management — the name was chosen to honor his paternal grandfather, Johan Marinus Spork, a Dutch sea captain — had recently been claiming 730 percent returns for its investors. Spork’s…

Subscribe or to continue reading.
’s forthcoming book about climate change, Windfall, will be published in January by the Penguin Press. He is a fellow at the Investigative Fund.

Tags

21st century Career as hedge fund manager Climatic changes Corrupt practices Drinking water Economic aspects Economic conditions Environmental aspects Fraud investigation Glaciers Hedge funds Iceland Iceland Glacier Products (Water utility) iGlobal Water (Water utility : Toronto Ont.) Ontario Ontario Securities Commission Otto Spork Sextant Capital Management (Toronto Toronto Transportation Water resources development Water transfer Water utilities
Adjust
| View All Issues |

July 2013

| View All Issues |
Table of Contents
Close
“An unexpectedly excellent magazine that stands out amid a homogenized media landscape.” —the New York Times
Subscribe now
Close
You’ve read one of your two free articles this month. Subscribe for less than $2 an issue.
Close
You’ve read your last free article this month. Subscribe now for only $21.97 per year to continue reading.

Debug