Over roughly 12 years, he issued about 2,508 promissory notes across 518 transactions, moving just over $174 million through 11 financial institutions. When the scheme collapsed, 84 investors had lost more than $8.3 million in principal. Many told the trustee the money was their life savings or retirement.
The operator was declared bankrupt on June 1, 2020, and Campbell Saunders Ltd. was appointed trustee. Investors filed claims totalling almost $26 million, but the trustee recovered only about $528,000 from a boat, a motorcycle and his share of a Kelowna home.
Edmonton police had charged the operator and his common-law partner with fraud and laundering proceeds of crime. The trial was set for 2025, but he drowned in the Okanagan River in June 2024, and the charges were stayed.
Unable to recover much from the estate, the trustee turned to the investors who came out ahead. It asked the court to declare the excess payments, the amounts received above each person’s principal, void as fraudulent conveyances, unjust enrichment, and money had and received. Justice Fitzpatrick agreed, finding those payments void and repayable to the estate.
None of the net winners disputed that a Ponzi scheme had operated, and the court noted there was no suggestion they knew about the fraud or took part in it. That did not shield their profits. The judge ordered a summary clawback process to settle the amounts owed, rather than separate lawsuits that could drain the estate.
