Arnold Breitkreutz, 74, was found guilty of fraud over $ 5,000 by the Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby after a trial earlier this month. When charges were first imposed in 2018, RCMP said it affected hundreds of investors. These men and women invested in Breitkreutz’s company, Base Finance, and believed that their money was secured by mortgages on real estate in Alberta. In fact, it was borrowed from an oil and gas advocate and used in “a dangerous oil game in Texas and secured against oil and gas leases and equipment,” the judge wrote in his 20-page ruling.
“We saw the sheriffs take him”
A group of about a dozen investors gathered in the courtroom on Wednesday afternoon for the verdict. “He has been convicted and we know he will go to jail,” said Bill Janman, an investor who lost nearly $ 3 million in fraud. “We really stayed in the courtroom until we saw the sheriffs take him out the back door, where they take the detainees out.” Although Base Financial started operating in the late 1980s and took investors’ money for more than 30 years, the time period taken into account by the courts was over 16 months, from May 2014 to September 2014. 2015. Investment losses at Base Finance totaled more than $ 100 million, but much of that does not fall into breach dates. “There was no way I could recover from the loss,” said Janman, who is in his 70s.
“Nothing but a great Ponzi design”
In 1999, Janman knew someone who had invested in Base Finance mortgages. He met with Breitkreutz, put money in the company and got some back. He also received interest checks. “Over time, we started borrowing more,” said Janman, who was trying to raise his retirement savings. In 2016, Base Financial came under management and “everyone ‘s world came to an end,” Janman said. “Then we learned it was nothing, it was just a big Ponzi scheme and everything they had invested in was gone.” Despite claiming that he did not deliberately mislead investors, Breitkreutz knew he was “cheating” those he had trusted and their money into the business owner, as Feasby ruled. “Mr Breitkreutz knew he was playing with his investors’ money in ways and risks, they did not understand and they did not agree.”
“One of the worst scams”
In 2019, the Alberta Securities and Exchange Commission (ASC) ordered Breitkreutz and his office manager, Susan Elizabeth Way, to repay nearly $ 4 million. At the time, the ASC called the plan “one of the worst frauds ever committed in Alberta.” Breitkreutz and Base Finance Ltd. were permanently excluded from trading or buying securities after being convicted of violating the securities law. Many of the investors deceived by Breitkreutz and Way were elderly. Last year, Way was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to her role in the fraud. The date for Breitkreutz’s sentencing will be set next month. Prosecutor Brian Holtby said that, based on similar cases, the appropriate range is between seven and 12 years in prison. Defense attorney Kyle Ellis-Todington did not say what he intended to do with the sentence.
