Cinar

Cinar Corporation (also known as Cinar Studios, Cinar Animation, Cinar Films, and Cinar Home Entertainment and formerly known as Cinar Television, Cinar Telecommunications. HBO-Cinar, Cinar Communications, and Cinar Entertainment) was the Canadian Animation Studio and American Live-Action film distributor. Between 1985 and 2004, Cinar produced a number of successful shows such as Arthur, Caillou, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The Adventures of David the Gnome, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Zoboomafoo, among others. due to it's revival, it has announced to produce 3 films a year.

History
After their 1976 meeting in New Orleans, future spouses Micheline Charest and Ronald A. Weinberg organized an event for a women's film festival, and worked at distributing foreign films to US theatres. The couple moved to New York City and formed Cinar, a film and television distribution company.

In 1984, Cinar changed their focus from media distribution to production and moved operations to Montreal, where they concentrated on children's television programming (including Animal Crackers, Emily of New Moon, Mona the Vampire, and The Wombles), as well as the English and French dubs of the anime series Adventures of the Little Koala and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the Spain-originating TV series The World of David the Gnome, and the English dub of Ultra Seven. As a production company, Cinar was also involved in the work of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, Madeline, The Real Story of Happy Birthday to You, The Adventures of Paddington Bear, Space Cases, The Shoe People and its most famous work, Arthur, Zoboomafoo, Caillou and Plumo.

The firm became a public company in September 1993. By 1999, Cinar boasted annual revenues of $150 million (CAD) and owned about $1.5 billion (CAD) of the children's television market. In 1993, Cinar acquired the library of the British animation studio FilmFair, and closed it in 1998. In February 1999, Cinar acquired the film library of Leucadia Film Corporation.

Scandal
The success of Charest, Weinberg, and Cinar ended in March 2000, when an internal audit revealed that about $122 million (US) was invested into Bahamian bank accounts without the board members' approval. Cinar had also paid American screenwriters for work while continuing to accept Canadian federal grants for content. The names of Canadian citizens (generally non-writers connected to Cinar, including Charest's sister Helene) were credited for the work, allowing Cinar to benefit from Canadian tax credits. While the province of Quebec did not file criminal charges, Cinar denied any wrongdoing, choosing instead to pay a settlement to Canadian and Quebec tax authorities of $17.8 million (CAD) and another $2.6 million (CAD) to Telefilm Canada, a Canadian federal funding agency. The value of Cinar's stock plummeted, and the company was soon delisted.

There was some speculation that Hasanain Panju, CFO was the mastermind behind the investment scheme along with John Xanthoudakis of Norshield Investment Group and Lino Matteo of Mount Real Corporation. It was alleged that Charest and Weinberg (and later Panju) used Cinar as a 'piggy bank' and schemed to transfer funds out from the company through a series of complicated transactions to their own offshore holding companies.

In 2001, as part of a settlement agreement with the Commission des Valeurs Mobilières du Québec (Quebec Securities Commission) Charest and Weinberg agreed to pay $1 million each and were banned from serving in the capacity of directors or officers at any publicly traded Canadian company for five years. There was no admission of guilt and none of the allegations has been proven in court. Charest never lived to see a possible outcome, as she died on April 14, 2004.

In September 2008, William A. Urseth published an "insider's" book called Death Spiral. It detailed the CINAR scandal and how it tied into two other companies called Norshield and Mount Real.

Aftermath
After 14 years of legal wrangling, on August 26, 2009, the Superior Court of Quebec ruled that CINAR would have to pay author Claude Robinson $5.2 million in damages for plagiarizing Robinson's work for the Cinar-produced animated series Robinson Sucroe. Robinson had originally presented the work to Cinar in 1986, and the concept was turned down.

On January 17, 2014, former CFO Hasanain Panju pleaded guilty to undisclosed crimes. The judge noted these crimes were 'disgraceful' and placed a publication ban on details surrounding the trial. Panju was sentenced to four years in prison.

On May 12, 2014, co-founder Ronald Weinberg, John Xanthoudakis of Norshield Financial Group and Lino Matteo of Mount Real Corp. were charged with 26 counts of fraud in Montreal Superior Court. They were convicted on most of the counts on June 2, 2016, and in the trial Panju acted as a key Crown witness. On June 22, 2016, Weinberg was sentenced to 8 years and 11 months in prison, and the other two received sentences of 7 years and 11 months each.

The Cinar affair was described thus by The Globe and Mail:

"Mr. Weinberg and Ms. Charest set out to make non-violent, non-sexist children’s programming because they wanted to foster socially progressive attitudes and feelings of self-worth in their own sons and a generation of kids with far too many bad TV choices.

But by the time their own kids had outgrown Cinar’s shows, the couple’s motivations seemed to have slid down the well-greased path of basic greed and avarice. If it took breaking the rules to enrich themselves, so be it. Success had gone to their heads. They acted (if not felt) invincible."

Revival
when DHX Media purchased United Artists, Cinar announced to become revived as DHX Cinar. Mike Myers, an actor, has became a president of Cinar as a Canadian Animation Studio and American Film Distributor.

CINAR Animation

 * The World of David the Gnome (1985–2006) (co-produced by BRB Internacional, Bob and Harvey Weinstein and Miramax Films, United States & Canada distribution only)
 * The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1986–1987)
 * Adventures of the Little Koala (1987–1993) (co-produced by Viacom)
 * Madeline (original specials) (1988–1991) (co-produced by DIC Entertainment for the original special, and France Animation for the remaining five specials)
 * The Smoggies (1988)
 * Ronin Warriors (1988–1989) (co-produced by Graz Entertainment, distribution only)
 * C.L.Y.D.E. (1990–1991) (co-produced by France Animation)
 * Dr. Xargle (1991) (co-produced by King Rollo Films)
 * Young Robin Hood (1991–1992) (co-produced by Hanna-Barbera)
 * A Bunch of Munsch (1992)
 * Chip and Charlie (1992)
 * The Real Story of Happy Birthday to You (1992) (co-produced by France Animation)
 * The Legend of White Fang (1992–1994) (co-produced by France Animation)
 * Albert the Fifth Musketeer (1993) (co-produced by BBC and France Animation)
 * Papa Beaver's Storytime (1993–1994)
 * The Busy World of Richard Scarry (1993–1997) (co-produced by Paramount Television)
 * Robinson Sucroe (1994) (co-produced by France Animation)
 * Cat Tales (1994–1996)
 * The Babaloos (1995–1999)
 * The Little Lulu Show (1995–1999)
 * Night Hood (1996)
 * The Wombles (1996–1998) (with United-Productions, FilmFair)
 * Arthur (1996–present) (co-produced by WGBH, Seasons 1–8 were produced by CINAR, Seasons 9–15 were produced by Cookie Jar Entertainment, Seasons 16–19 were produced by 9 Story Entertainment and Seasons 20–present are produced by Oasis Animation)
 * Ivanhoe: The King's Knight (1997)
 * Caillou (1997–2010) (co-produced by PBS)
 * Patrol 03 (1997) (co-produced by France Animation)
 * Animal Crackers (1997–1999) (co-produced by Alphanim)
 * The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures (1997–1999) (co-production with WIC Entertainment and France Animation)
 * The Adventures of Paddington Bear (1997–2001) (co-produced with Protecrea)
 * Bizby (1999)
 * Flight Squad (1999)
 * Journey to the West – Legends of the Monkey King (1999) (co-production with China Central Television)
 * Mumble Bumble (1999)
 * Ripley's Believe It or Not! (1999) (co-produced by Alphanim)
 * The Baskervilles (1999–2001) (co-produced by Alphanim)
 * Zoboomafoo (1999–2001) (co-production with Earth Creatures and Maryland Public Television)
 * Mona the Vampire (1999–2003) (co-produced by Alphanim)
 * A Miss Mallard Mystery (2000)
 * Treasure (2000) (co-produced by BBC)
 * The Twins (2000)
 * Upstairs, Downstairs Bears (2000–2002) (co-produced by FilmFair and Egmont Imagination)
 * Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings (2002)
 * Potatoes and Dragons (2004–2010) (co-produced by Alphanim)
 * Creepschool (2004) (co-produced by Alphanim)

CINAR Television

 * Happy Castle (1988–1989)
 * Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1992–1996) (co-production with Nickelodeon and YTV)
 * The Intrepids (1993–1996)
 * Wimzie's House (1995–1996)
 * Space Cases (1996–1998)
 * The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo (1996–1998) (co-production with Nickelodeon)
 * Lassie (1997–1999) (co-produced by Classic Media and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment)
 * Un Hiver de Tourmente (1998)
 * Emily of New Moon (1998–2000) (co-production with WIC Entertainment and Salter Street Films)
 * Sci-Squad (1999–2000)
 * Zoboomafoo (1999–2001) (co-production with Maryland Public Television)
 * Orville (2017-present) (co-production with Fairview Entertainment and Fuzzy Door Productions; Fox-Weinstein-Dimension Television handles International distribution rights)
 * Imaginary Mary (2017-present) (co-production with David Guarascio Productions, ABC Studios, and TriStar Pictures Television; American distribution only)
 * Mr. Dean (2018-present)
 * The Adventures of Mister Messy (2019-present)
 * The King of Washington (2020-present) (co-production with Windshield Productions)
 * The Mike Myers Show (2021-present)
 * The Susans Family (2022-present)

CINAR Pictures

 * Hockey Night (1984)
 * John the Fearless (1984)
 * Million Dollar Babies (1994)
 * Bonjour Timothy (1995)
 * Wish Upon a Star (1996)
 * The Best Bad Thing (1997)
 * The Whole of the Moon (1997)
 * Ghost of Dickens' Past (1998)
 * Sally Marshall Is Not an Alien (1999)
 * Both Sides of the Law (1999)
 * Revenge of the Land (1999)
 * Who Gets the House? (1999)
 * Kayla (1999)
 * Ivor the Invisible (2001)
 * Heart: The Marilyn Bell Story (2001)
 * Anastasia (2020) (distributed by Fox-Weinstein-Dimension)
 * The Moscow Revenge (2020)
 * Africa (2020)
 * The Seal Kingdom (2021) (co-production with Paramount Animation; distributed by Paramount Pictures)
 * The Gentleman Dinner (2021)
 * Equal English Kingdom (2021)
 * Rasputin (2022) (distributed by Fox-Weinstein-Dimension)
 * Freddy the Ferret (2022)
 * Who Stole The Cookies from the Cookie Jar? (2022)