What kind of business defrauds seniors and veterans, and knowingly defunds a benevolent community-focused not-for-profit that provides fully donated services to any charity that asks? If you live in Simcoe County, you have a right to know. Canadian families are enduring difficult times, and we all know it is the corporations that are making life harder through artificially manufactured inflation and other scams that pick all our pockets. That is why we are producing an investigative documentary about mortgage fraud in Canada, with one story based in Simcoe County.

Ours is a story of criminal fraud, deception, loan sharking, and lack of accountability as committed by the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station, located in Lafroy. We also delve into the unethical path followed by the management team at Verico Financial Group Inc., and the board of directors at HomeEquity Bank who chose to cover for the brokers who earn for them millions of dollars in mortgage sales. This story centers around the CHIP Reverse Mortgage, which these corporations market and sell to potentially vulnerable seniors.

The con game, which was well-polished and very effective, involved three entrusted brokers. Lisa Purchase set up the mark, using a variety of ‘unexplainable excuses’ to triple the length of the lending process. She then called in her colleague, Renee Dadswell, who was eager to offer bridge financing at the loan shark rate of 198.25 per cent in combined fees and interest. Moneylending laws limit the loan rate to an absolute maximum of sixty per cent, making this an act of usury that is an indictable offence punishable by up to five years in prison.

The loan sharks used the philanthropic nature of their client to coerce his acceptance, as they were fully aware that their game of stall and delay was causing the virtual collapse of our benevolent, not-for-profit media service that has contributed more than $700,000.00 worth of services to our shared community through the donation of more than 350 fundraising and educational videos to 180 plus charities, not-for-profits, and community groups. The loan sharks also knew how that level of dedication to our community was honoured in 2021, when the intended target of their con was nominated and voted to the highest levels for an award for altruism presented by the City of Barrie and the Barrie Chamber of Commerce.

The target of this fraud is also known for directly assisting the homeless community in Barrie by providing food and the necessities of life through street outreach, and most recently, he led the community in a campaign to provide an electric wheelchair to a young amputee member of our community. Simply put, through their self-serving actions, the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station knowingly drained the finances of a social enterprise public service that is now no longer able to help and promote hundreds of charities, not-for-profits, and benevolent community groups in Simcoe County.

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We assumed that the fraud, deception, and self-absorbed nature of the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station was isolated, but when we contacted the management team of Verico Financial Group Inc. and the board of directors of HomeEquity Bank they chose to side with the loan sharks, putting profit before ethics by ignoring the complaint of their client and refusing to review the crimes or the unredacted evidence provided.

When confronted with the details of the crimes committed by his brokers, David Flude, the principal broker at Verico the Mortgage Station, turned to lying, denying, and violating the regulatory requirements of his license as a broker governed by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario or FSRA. He also lied about the man his brokers had defrauded by describing the philanthropist to another prospective client as ‘a serial agitator’ instead of as a victim of fraud. David Flude showed no concern about any possible repercussions, and in time we found out why.

W. Mark Squire, President, and Chief Operating Officer at Verico Financial Group Inc., and Yvonne Ziomecki-Fisher, the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales at HomeEquity Bank both refused to investigate the fully supported allegations, or even to reply fully to correspondence. Then, as if coordinated, they both closed off all communications.

When the allegations were filed with the South Simcoe Police Service, the Criminal Investigations Division shelved the complaint and evidence for a full year after refusing to investigate the fully supported claims being made against the local multi-million-dollar brokerage that was being backed by a multi-billion-dollar bank. Then, when pushed by a very public letter we sent to the Innisfil Mayor and Council, the South Simcoe Police Service performed a slipshod investigation during which they spoke only with the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station, and never with the victim of the crime.

They also arbitrarily omitted key evidence, including a bank statement and the mortgage funds disbursement record that had been created by the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station. When compared, those documents confirmed conclusively that Renee Dadswell had charged 198.25% in interest and fees, which warranted the indictable offence of usury, which brings with it a prison sentence of up to five years. They also falsified calculations to grant a pass to the wealthy and influential business that boasts sales of six million dollars a year.

Finally, we turned to the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA), the government assigned financial watchdog for citizens in Ontario. At first, they were open to scheduling an interview for our exposé documentary. However, after we made their offer a matter of public record, they suddenly turned tail and ran from the prospect of our exposing the crimes and abuses of public trust undertaken by the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station, and the management team of Verico Financial Group Inc. and the board of directors of HomeEquity Bank, for which they are responsible to investigate.

Although the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station represent only one small brokerage, the management team at Verico Financial Group Inc. represents 3800 brokers across Canada, and the HomeEquity Bank is a Schedule 1 Chartered Bank. That means they both have legal and political clout with regards to the agency that ultimately must account for its actions with the big-business friendly Conservative party, which changed the provincial motto from 'Yours to Discover' to 'Open for Business'. It has never been any kind of secret that under Premier Doug Ford, the government of Ontario has supported any developer or big business that can line the pockets of the party, or potentially individual members of the majority party of the provincial parliament.

Regardless of their friends in low places, and despite them having that level of combined wealth and influence, no identifiable person representing the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station or their allies at Verico Financial Group Inc. and HomeEquity Bank has denied any of our very public allegations, and they have refused to file a claim for civil damages or to seek injunctive relief to prevent us from publishing fully supported allegations that they claim is libel because they don’t want to face the truth. The courts are not as easily ‘motivated’ as a detective of a small-town police department, or a politician, be they at the provincial or municipal levels.

We have not been served by any lawyer with a demand to cease-and-desist publishing the facts of this story under threat of civil action, because there is no burden of liability for telling the truth. The South Simcoe Police Service and Simcoe County Council have similarly chosen to just ignore our allegations rather than face our evidence in a court of law. Neither has so much as written an angry email denouncing our claims as false.

If that is not sufficient to make you wonder why the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station are taking no action, consider that all they will need to lose are 250 potential clients this year before they forfeit about one million dollars in income. Our reports and especially our videos are reaching tens and in some cases hundreds of thousands of people, mostly when posted and boosted on social media. So, why, if our claims are not factual and we don’t have the evidence, would these multi-million and multi-billion-dollar corporations not now be scraping our remains from beneath a judge’s gavel? What are they hiding that is worth so much more to them than a million dollars a year? We have had a bird whispering in our ear, and we think they know it.

These ‘financial service professionals’ have also all ignored multiple offers to disprove our evidence and in doing so cancel our exposé documentary either through an on-camera interview or under the protection of a structured without prejudice meeting. We started reporting on these crimes and abuses of public trust in June of 2022, yet none of the representatives of these multi-million and multi-billion-dollar corporations has shown the courage required to stand up and refute our accusations and evidence.

In December of 2023, an unidentified anonymous agent for the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station, who was in truth most likely David Flude, sent to our Producer the threat of an ethically abusive form of civil action known as Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation, or a SLAPP lawsuit. However, several months have passed, and we are still waiting for David Flude to muster the courage or manufacture the evidence he will require to file the claim in a court of law.

The delay has been caused by an apparent inability on the part of the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station to retain legal counsel. One after another, from cities across Ontario, Manitoba, and even the United States, lawyers have come to the content of these reports and videos, and also to the website for Five Points Media. Then, after viewing a few pages and learning the truth of this story, they disappeared, never to return.

The truth we are telling here is simply a reporting of the actions and decisions of the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station and their allies, and no matter how many walls they build to protect themselves, the truth will break through. That is why they will not defend their actions in an on-camera interview, nor challenge our allegations in a court of law, nor even meet for an informal without prejudice meeting. Only the guilty hide, and huff, puff, and bluff does not work against hard evidence.

As we have always been such a reliable supporter of local charities, not-for-profits, and benevolent groups and contributor to our community, we feel it is important for parents and other to understand how our inability to support their causes is a result of the unethical and criminal abuses of trust by the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station. Our benevolent community media service has been credited with raising hundreds of thousands of dollars through the production of hundreds of fully donated services to hundreds of local charities, not-for-profits, and benevolent community groups. However, now, due to the greed of the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station and the see no evil attitude of their allies at Verico Financial Group Inc. and HomeEquity Bank, the entire community suffers.

No ethical lawyer will accept a retainer for a case they know will be an abuse of the purpose and intent of the civil court system, and they can see that our claims are fully supported and based on fact. The multi-million and multi-billion-dollar corporations may have been able to ‘motivate’ a detective from the South Simcoe Police Service to slip them a pass on an indictable offence that carries with it a prison sentence of up to five years, but in a court of law, the truth is determined by the evidence and not by local economic or political influence.

We have questions for which we will find the answers, or at the very least we will provide the facts that will allow our growing following to judge the truth for themselves. This is, after all, a story of financial crime being committed against especially vulnerable seniors, which is of interest to a large portion of our population.

• How many other Canadian families have been defrauded by the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station, or have been ignored by their allies at Verico Financial Group and HomeEquity Bank?
• Why are these multi-million-dollar corporations and a multi-billion-dollar bank so clearly afraid to launch a legal claim against a small, not-for-profit, community channel?
• What does it say about the ethics of these entrusted financial services that ignore accountability for defunding a charitable service that has helped hundreds of thousands of people in our community?
• What could have possibly motivated the detectives of the South Simcoe Police Service to omit key financial documentary evidence and fudge the figures to protect the multi-million-dollar brokers?
• Why is the FSRA, a government regulated watchdog and advocate for financial services in Ontario, now hiding from our cameras and the hard questions they don’t want to answer?

The taxpayers of Simcoe County deserve more than the criminal and ethical abuses of the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station. They also should not be forced to accept the selective blindness approach to indictable offences that appear to apply only when benefiting the wealthy. The law should apply equally to all; however, in Simcoe County, it appears that taxpayers must accept a two-tiered system of law enforcement that benefits the rich and increases risk to the middle class and less affluent.

The South Simcoe Police Service omitted evidence and faked calculations to help the million-dollar brokers, and all members of Simcoe County Council have simply ignored our allegations and evidence.

As such, they have left us no choice but to present the truth and evidence through public exposure, and we openly challenge those in our spotlight to prove to a Justice of the Superior Court that we are not telling the truth, which clearly, they know they cannot do.

If you have been victimized by Verico the Mortgage Station, Verico Financial Group Inc., HomeEquity Bank, or any other brokerage in Simcoe County, please contact us. We are offering financial compensation for factual interviews that can be supported by tangible evidence.

For more information, please visit themortgagestation.tv