AIC Ltd. made Mr. Lee-Chin a billionaire, and he had all the toys, including the same type of $60-million Global Express corporate jet used by Bill Gates, and two caged parrots in the AIC lobby, named Calypso and Fantasia (trained to squawk "buy" and "hold").

The fairy tale ended yesterday. With assets down and investors walking as AIC underperformed, Mr. Lee-Chin sold the fund manager to Manulife.