A financial adviser from Winnipeg has been put under police investigation after facing allegations of manipulating 78-year-old client of his, who has been suffering from cognitive impairment, into lending him CA$200,000 to pay gambling debts.
According to documents filed in court, the 50-year-old Aime Edmond Grenier is facing accusations of using his relationship with his client in order to borrow a massive amount of money from him, with the lawns dating back to 2009. Mr. Grenier has not repaid any of the loans which he had taken in order to pay some debts he made as a result of his compulsive gambling. On the other hand, the court documents describe the 78-year-old man as extremely wealthy and generous, but also as susceptible to manipulation.
Back in June 2018, a court order was issued in order for the police to search the bank records and credit card statements of Mr. Grenier. The investigators revealed that the probe started last summer after the victim reported that an investment of his, amounting to CA$100,000, had been gone. The complaint was inspected by the police, with investigators finding out that the money was not missing after all but had been transferred to another investment by the financial adviser of the senior.
The investigation, however, did not stop there. As revealed by Detective Sergeant Trevor Thompson back in June, some events which suggest that the financial adviser might have been taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of his client had occurred.
Financial Adviser User Part of the Loan for Covering Gambling Debt
The elderly man suffered a brain injury back in a car crash in 1977. Since then, he has been receiving CA$18,000 free of taxes on a monthly basis. According to the written statement confirmed by investigatorsā oath before the court, at the time when Detective Sergeant Thomson met the victim, it was āobviousā that the man was facing some kind of ācognitive issueā.
The investigator revealed to the court that the elderly man was extremely trusting, generous and sometimes forgetful about his financial matters as a lasting effect of his brain injury.
The police investigated a substantial loan which Mr. Grenier allegedly received āunder false pretenceā. The court documents say that the senior was visited by his financial adviser in his home on November 23rd, 2016. At the time, Mr. Grenier asked his client to lend him CA$200,000 which he claimed he had to pay to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
Allegedly, Mr. Grenier used the CA$200,000 to make some payments, including a CA$25,000 payment to the CRA, a CA$20,000 investment made in two companies, a CA$100,000 deposit in a bank account, of which CA$34,200 were used to cover for online poker losses of the financial adviser, and about CA$50,000 were used for payments to two credit cards.
So far, the financial adviser has not faced criminal charges, and none of the allegations against him have been proven in court. Still, the court documents say that Mr. Grenier was pushed to the manipulation by a serious gambling problem, as evidence of his constant use of poker websites have shown.
