A few weeks ago, while volunteering as part of a street outreach team helping the homeless and unsheltered community with food and the necessities of life, our Producer came across a distraught man who was sitting in a park cutting himself with a knife. After some conversation, trust was earned, and the man revealed that he had recently lost everything and had just been discharged from mental health care at the local hospital. Now, he advised, he was seriously considering suicide. The team immediately reached out to their contacts in the crisis management section of emergency services and waited with the man until help arrived in the form of an ambulance and several specially trained police officers.

That is what responsible adults do, and not just walk away, hoping everything will be alright.

Two years ago, the brokers of Verico the Mortgage Station defrauded our producer, a senior, veteran, and philanthropist, by adding illegal fees to a loan agreement pertaining to a short-term personal loan from Renee Dadswell through which she charged usury or loan shark levels of interest and fees adding up to 198.25%, when the legal limit is 60%. That act was an indictable offence that brings with it, upon conviction, a prison sentence of up to five years.

Neither David Flude nor Renee Dadswell has ever denied that allegation, nor shown the courage to sign their name to any action to prevent us from reporting the truth of their criminal and ethical abuses of trust.

When he received the complaint of loan sharking, David Flude was legally obligated by the Criminal Code of Canada and the 'regulatory requirements' of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) to take action to ensure the best interests of his client. Instead, he responded by lying six times in two emails (Email 1) (Email 2) to evade investigation. Then he refused to do anything and stonewalled any idea of an investigation. In an email dated May 29, 2022, David Flude made it clear that nobody from Verico the Mortgage Station would accept their responsibility pursuant to the regulations of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) that licenses them to broker mortgages in Ontario. Then, this 'ethical financial professional' attempted to 'justify' the uncontested illegal lending rate of 198.25% in interest and fees by stating:

David Flude's self-exoneration:
"3) This short term loan provided to assist you in making your previous mortgage payment obligation, in my opinion was a generous and helpful deal."

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The law:
The Criminal Code of Canada, Section 347 - Usury (Loan Sharking) states:
347 (1) Despite any other Act of Parliament, every one who enters into an agreement or arrangement to receive interest at a criminal rate, or receives a payment or partial payment of interest at a criminal rate, is:

1. guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or
2. guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable to a fine of not more than $25,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years less a day, or to both.

We would all like to be able to rewrite the law from time to time, but it applies to all of us equally, including those who grow wealthy by abusing the trust of others by ignoring their legal and ethical obligations.

The decision to ignore the complaint, as was made by W. Mark Squire, the President and CEO of Verico Financial Group Inc., which was then echoed by Steven Ranson, the then President and CEO of HomeEquity Bank, warrants an investigation and likely charges of Fraudulent Concealment, an indictable offence under Section 341 of the Criminal Code of Canada. That also carries over to Katherine Dudtschak, who as the new CEO and President of HomeEquity Bank, had an obligation to review the claims of criminal and ethical abuses of trust committed by the brokers of Verico the Mortgage Station who were selling the CHIP Reverse Mortgage on behalf of the Schedule 1 Canadian Chartered Bank. Katherine Dudtschak should have called for a thorough investigation as soon as she became aware of the allegations, but she chose instead to hide and help to conceal the criminal and ethical abuses of trust afflicted on a client of the HomeEquity Bank.

The Criminal Code of Canada, Section 341 - Fraudulent concealment states:
341 Every person who, for a fraudulent purpose, takes, obtains, removes or conceals anything is guilty of

1. an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years; or
2. an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Throughout the past two years, any harm, be it financial or to their brand, suffered by the brokers at Verico the Mortgage Station and their allies at Verico Financial Group Inc. and HomeEquity Bank has been self-inflicted.

The only reason for any harm done by our reporting has been caused by their denial, stalling for time, and lying. Throughout the past two years, those traits have been a constant theme when reviewing the actions of the 'trusted financial professionals', and they started relying on those 'tactics' on the first day we reported on this story. Despite their efforts to hide and conceal their actions, all they are accomplishing is to galvanize visitor's trust in our reporting as while our small, not for profit, social enterprise, community media service is out in the light, it is the multi-million, multi-billion, and quarter-trillion-dollar corporations who are hiding from us and our evidence by skulking in the shadows.

1. We have been reporting on this story uninterrupted for more than two years. Throughout that time, no person with the courage required to identify themself, from any of these multi-million, multi-billion, and quarter-trillion-dollar corporations has contested ANY of our allegations.
2. We offered to meet to review any evidence held by the multi-million and multi-billion-dollar corporations, but they ignored the offers.
3. We offered to terminate our expose documentary on mortgage fraud, and even to apologise for any misinformation, if anybody from any of these multi-million and multi-billion-dollar corporations could provide tangible evidence to show that our allegations are inaccurate or in error. However, they have repeatedly ignored all offers.
4. We have written directly to David Flude, and W. Mark Squire, and Katherine Dudtschak seeking feedback as a client, but all correspondence has been ignored.
5. We offered each of the corporations the opportunity to explain their side of the story on camera so we could provide the public with a balanced view of our programming, but again they have refused to even reply.
6. The ONLY response we have ever received was a lame "threat" of a court scorned Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) lawsuit, made more than eight months ago. However, our response evidently surprised them when we called on them to file a claim if they genuinely felt we had been deceptive in our reporting. The result was that none of the corporations of brokers, branders, and bankers, has filed civil action seeking damages, nor even filed a motion for injunctive relief to prevent our reporting, as they assured us would be an easy win for them.
7. It is mostly due to their collective decision to perpetuate the false and undefendable veil of 'innocence' that our viewership has increased so dramatically. That trend was also affected by the quantity and quality of our content, both of which have improved dramatically due to the extended time period afforded us by their denial. Now, as a result, we are ensured that our posts are online, usually on page one, of Google and the other search engines less than a week, usually within four days, of being posted. There was never any need for this story to get this big, or for the general public to know about their shared criminal and ethical abuses. They could have months ago shown us their evidence, or discussed the reasons for their actions, but instead, they sunk in their heels and started digging their own final destiny.
8. David Flude was exposed by a potential client as being a repetitive liar after he claimed that our Producer, a community awarded philanthropist, is making this expose documentary because he is a 'serial agitator' who is somehow using the truth and our evidence of the criminal and ethical abuses of trust committed by his brokers, with his knowledge, to advance our careers, when our goal is to warn potentially vulnerable seniors about the risks of hiring any of these companies. That story was so lame anybody could see the falsehoods and ridiculous nature of the allegations. Philanthropists do not attack people for no reason, and multi-million-dollar corporations do not sit back and let others libel them for the whole world to see. David Flude could have told the woman they had made a mistake and then been motivated by the cost of her discoveries to take the high road of ethical conduct, even if only to help prevent others also finding the truth. However, instead he lied, which is why he lost an $800.000.00 mortgage, and a commission of about $8,000.00. He can blame us for outing his actions, which happened ONLY AFTER he hurt us and the community, or he can man up and accept responsibility for knowingly allowing his brokers to defraud senior and veteran clientele through loan sharking.
9. The team of our not-for-profit, social enterprise, community media service has, during the past decade, donated more than $700,000.00 in services through the donation of more than 350 fundraising and community awareness videos donated to greater than 180 local charities, not-for-profits, and benevolent community groups. In 2020, our team was nominated and voted to the highest levels for a city-wide award for altruism, by the City of Barrie and Chamber of Commerce. From our extensive, and some would say impressive, history of challenging the arrogant and self-absorbed who have tried and consistently failed to silence our right to freedom of expression, as is guaranteed by Section 2b of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, no court is going to listen to claims that are so transparently false. That is likely why it seems from our visitor logs that David Flude is experiencing considerable difficulty in finding a lawyer who will accept his retainer to challenge our reporting.
10. Instead of dealing with the situation they created, like the 'ethical financial professionals' they profess to be, the multi-million, multi-billion, and quarter-trillion-dollar corporations continue to wallow in the darkness, as they have done for more than two years, refusing to even reply to the emails of their client. Meanwhile, we are not hiding who we are, where they can find us, or why we are telling this story.
11. When the 'anonymous agent' threatened to sue us, more than eight months ago, David Flude failed to attain the capitulation he demanded, and he succeeded only in embarrassing himself. That public humiliation is likely why David Flude feared the empty action so much he did not sign his threats, including his vacuous promises of retribution against our twenty-something year old interns and apprentices, and he sent it via a generic email address. We welcomed the Principal Broker or any of the others discussed in our reporting to file civil action, as we want the evidence before a judge. There, the involved parties can be compelled to testify on the stand, under oath, even if under duress by order of a subpoena, where their claims can be proven as false by our hard, tangible evidence.
12. What does it say to the potential clients of each of these wealthy corporations when on one side they see the trifecta of a multi-million-dollar, a multi-billion-dollar, and a quarter-trillion-dollar corporation, and on the other, a small, not-for-profit, social enterprise, community media channel that donates all of its services? Regardless, it is the 'Goliath' who is clearly afraid to challenge 'David', and their fear is based in their own actions, their lack of accountability, their failed attempts at intimidation, and their lack of desire to take the facts and evidence to an impartial Justice of the Superior Court?

After a more than two years of hiding, the high and mighty are down to picking through our various websites looking for a lucky break, and apparently throwing their co-conspirators and colleagues 'under the bus'.

The visits by a once steady stream of lawyers have stopped. So have the visits by dozens of 'researchers' or 'investigators' who were spending hundreds of hours reviewing every page of all three of our websites, including the commercial division that has no connection to this story. For several weeks those content commandos were checking every page, cross referencing to others, and at times we had five or six people on one story or video at the same time, even though our donated work for the community had nothing to do with this story. The pattern was often comical, as one visitor would find a story they thought was useful to them to attack our reputation. One was about a non-affiliated (non-gang) riding club that had organized a fundraiser for Autism Ontario, and another was about the sense of empowerment provided to many women by the sport of pole fitness. Suddenly those pages would be filled with other data miners seeking some small thing they could use to attack us with.

Sorry self-absorbed people, but there are no strippers and no Hells Angels on our websites, just good people raising money for charities and awareness of social issues to help those in our community.

The brokers of Verico the Mortgage Station and their allies at Verico Financial Group Inc. and HomeEquity Bank have CHOSEN to convince themselves that they are being victimized. Meanwhile, in a world we call reality, all we have ever done is expose the theft by some, the cover up by others, and the gross level of professional dereliction of responsibility that they have collectively demonstrated. They could have ended this two years ago with a simple apology and the return of what THEY stole, but THEY chose not to do so and instead CHOSE the path of defiance and denial. It is like Trump refusing to accept the results of the last election, despite 60 failed court appearances, and the mountain of evidence provided by EVERY expert in America who is not a MAGA lackey. For as long as these 'ethical financial professionals' drag this out, they are no different than the desperate homeless man our Producer found in that park, slowly and obliviously cutting himself so he could draw out the help and attention he so desperately needed.

One day these hypocrites and liars will have to come to terms with the fact that they are nothing more than thieves or collaborators, and that every bit of pain our factual exposure has caused them has been self-inflicted.