Category: Articles of Interest

David Debenham
(Co-Chair, Fraud Law Group, McMillan LLP)

In R. v. Wallace, 2017 ONSC 0132 the Applicants were charged with a single offence under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act.   They applied to the court to challenge wire tape warrants prior to trial, and won. As a result, the case against them collapsed. Just before they entered their pleas, the federal Crown attorney advised the court that she would not be calling any evidence against the Applicants, and she asked that the judge acquit these accused. Without the wiretap evidence, the Crown no longer had a reasonable prospect of conviction. The case serves as an important lesson to investigators who are bound by the Charter. Instead of doing the proper investigative groundwork and use a search warrant and wire tap as a last resort, the RCMP took the flimsiest of evidence as a basis for using the judicial “nuclear weapon” of a wiretap to discover if there was any case at all—- and in the result let the accused walk free such that we’ll never know if they were truly guilty or not—- an unsatisfactory ending for the accused, the prosecution, and Canadians as a whole. Continue reading SNC Lavalin Prosecution Founders on Lack of Admissible Evidence—No Tipping Allowed

David Debenham

Fraudsters often convey their assets to family and friends to hold for them. Those transfers can be set as‎ide if one can prove that the conveyance was intended to hinder,delay or defeat creditors from being paid out of the fraudster’s assets. Simple enough. But what if the fraudster embezzles, spends the proceeds, and then puts her mutual fund RRSPs into a creditor proof investment vehicle called a “seg fund”? There is no “conveyance” of an asset of the fraudster’s hands—she still owns the RRSPs. What if the seq fund was recommended by the fraudster’s investment counselor as being more suitable than the mutual fund? Was her transfer to the seq fund to “hinder, delay or defeat” her creditors? Continue reading Creditor Proofing No Refuge for Fraudsters

Norman Groot, LLB, CFE, CFI

An Update on Fraud Recovery through the Criminal Process

On September 13, 2016, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision in R. v. Angelis, 2016

ONCA 675. The decision provides clarity for fraud victims who hope to obtain a recovery through the criminal justice system’s forfeiture of proceeds of crime provisions. Continue reading What Fraud Victims Should Know About Criminal Forfeiture Orders

David Debenham

Canada has been rocked by a series of corruption scandals that led to the defeat of our last two Prime Ministers, and a widespread Commission of Inquiry into the connection between construction fraud and political bribery. With each scandal has come a range of legislative and law enforcement changes that have changed the way business is done in Canada. Now is a time for a broader discussion of how Canada investigates, punishes and deters white collar crime. Continue reading Capital Punishment and Punishment in Capitals: the Problem of White Collar Crime in Canada

David Debenham

Let us start with what we know. Statistics tell us that frauds are far more likely to be discovered by anonymous tips and by accident than by internal or external audit. They also tell us that most corporate frauds go on for 1 or 2 years before they are discovered.[1]   Clearly there is work to be done to increase the proactive discovery of corporate fraud. Continue reading “Embedded”: A New Approach to Corporate Fraud

Norman Groot

On October 26, 2015, the Canadian Foundation for Advancement of Investor Rights (FAIR Canada) held an “Investment Recovery Conference” with the Osgoode Hall Law School entitled “Public & Private Securities Enforcement: Improving Recovery for Harmed Investors.”  The Conference held panel discussions on such topics as the ”Relationship Between Public Regulatory Enforcement and Private Securities Class Actions” and “Investor Recovery Facilitated by Securities Regulators.” Continue reading What Fraud Victims Should Know About Recovery Through Securities Regulators – Problems with Relying on OSC Disgorgement Orders

Norman Groot

An Update on Fraud Recovery through Criminal Restitution Orders

On July 28, 2015, investment fraudsters Garry Sorenson and Milowe Brost were sentenced in their criminal trial to 12 years in jail. The Reasons for Judgment were just released by the Court, which is what prompted this blog post. The Court declared the fraud perpetrated by Sorenson and Brost to be the “biggest fraud in Canadian history” involving potentially $200M and potentailly 850 victims. Despite the magnitude of this fraud, the Court did not impose the maximum sentence of 14 years prison or make a restitution or fine-in-lieu-of-forfeiture order. Remarkably, the Court held: Continue reading What Fraud Victims Should Know About the Criminal Sentencing of Fraudsters and Fraud Recovery

Norman Groot

On May 5, 2015, Assistant Crown Attorney Renna Weinberg, Team Lead, Financial Crimes Unit, Toronto office of the Ministry of the Attorney General, and Norman Groot of Investigation Counsel PC (Civil Fraud Recovery Lawyers) provided a presentation entitled Coordinating Criminal and Civil Justice as a Means of Recovery for Fraud Victims at the AGM of the Association of Certified Forensic Investigators held in Toronto. Continue reading Coordinating Criminal and Civil Justice as a Means of Recovery for Fraud Victims

Norman Groot, LLB, CFE, CFI
June 5, 2015

To some people, the concept of privatized policing is offensive as they believe that the service of “policing” should be restricted to those who can be held accountable for their actions in the public realm – whether through a federal, provincial or municipal police service. Such resistance, however, is increasingly becoming outdated due to the lack of public resources to fund public policing and the corresponding increase in demand by the public for policing services. These ideas were explored comprehensively by the Law Commission of Canada in 2005 in its research entitled In Search of Security: The Future of Policing in Canada Continue reading Restorative Justice and Privatized Policing for Fraud Victims