A St. Albert man and his former business partner have been charged for defrauding investors of more than $23 million.
David Nelson Humeniuk of St. Albert and Varun Aurora of Calgary were behind a company called Concrete Equities Inc. that operated a fraudulent real estate venture in Senora, Mexico.
Sgt. Conal Archer of the Calgary RCMP Financial Integrity Unit, said investors were promised returns of 500 to 800 per cent in the purchase of undeveloped beach properties, called the El Golfo de Santa Clara Project.
The 1,300 investors were from Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
The $110 million in sales made were raised through offering memorandums and were RRSP eligible. Concrete Equities Inc. and all of their related corporations went into receivership in 2009.
RCMP allege that between 2007 and 2009, Humeniuk and Aurora provided false information to investors, diverted funds to other business ventures outside of the investment agreement and stole investors funds.
Investors were defrauded of more than $23 million.
Aurora and Humeniuk have both been charged with three counts of fraud over $5,000 and one count of theft over $5,000.
Humeniuk - who turned himself in to police in Edmonton - has been charged alone with one count of theft and money laundering for taking $1 million of investors' funds for his personal use.
The former mortgage broker was fined more than $3.3 million by the Alberta Securities Commission in 2012 for his part in Concrete Equities Inc. The hearing found Humeniuk's limited participation in the proceedings a demonstration of his lack of acknowledgement of wrongdoing.
“This indicates to us that Humeniuk, absent orders on our part, poses a continuing and serious risk to the investing public,” stated the decision, adding Humeniuk must never again have access, directly or indirectly, to the faith or funds of investors.
Humeniuk also received a lifetime ban from the Alberta real estate industry in 2005.
His first court appearance is on Feb. 27 in Calgary.
RCMP are still on the lookout for Aurora - who also goes by first name “Vinny”- and have issued a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest. RCMP believe he may be overseas.
Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of Aurora is asked to contact Sgt. Conal Archer of the Calgary RCMP Financial Integrity Unit at 403-699-2500 or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously (1-800-222-8477).
