An Alberta man was just lately discovered responsible of fraud, personification and forgery in a scheme wherein he solicited greater than $1.7 million in investments from associates, neighbours and colleagues.
The enterprise alternatives Nickolas Donovan Ellis offered to the folks round him had been “a home of playing cards constructed on a basis of deception,” a Court of King’s Bench justice ruled on Jan. 17.
Ellis was discovered to have used his skilled enterprise expertise and purported NHL connections to lure his victims, faked communications between events to maneuver enterprise alongside, and generally offered the identical curiosity to a number of folks.
In whole, he scammed eight folks between February 2016 and March 2019. Some victims invested in a couple of enterprise deal. Three victims misplaced about $200,000 or extra.
“The proof with respect to most of the components on a lot of the counts was circumstantial, however the circumstantial proof is overwhelming and in every case permits just one cheap inference,” wrote Justice John T. Henderson.
“Not one of the funding alternatives had been actual and all had been designed to easily extract substantial quantities of cash from the complainants for the only real advantage of Mr. Ellis.”
FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES VICTIMIZED
Ellis moved to Sherwood Park, east of Edmonton, in 2015.
In October, court docket heard Ellis had an unlimited enterprise profession, together with an government MBA from Queen’s College and roles in quite a few mergers and acquisitions.
“Mr. Ellis was extremely regarded by these he labored with, together with among the complainants,” Henderson famous in his choice.
Ellis started working for Wainbee Canada Inc., a hydraulics enterprise, in 2015 after transferring to Sherwood Park. Two years later, he took on the final supervisor place at Barcol Doorways and Home windows Ltd.
In keeping with the knowledge offered in court docket, he turned linked to greater than half of his victims via these jobs. The opposite victims had been neighbours and associates.
One man – who misplaced $194,000 investing in a non-existent app Ellis promised Microsoft was positioned to purchase – described Ellis as “his finest buddy.”
All had solely recognized Ellis for a “comparatively quick time frame” earlier than they invested with him.
DYNASTY APP
The app was the earliest and largest of Ellis’ 5 schemes, with three folks investing a complete of $1.189 million. One buddy put practically $600,000 towards the venture; one other practically $400,000.
Ellis testified he had been approached by a software program developer, whose final identify he couldn’t recall in court docket, who was elevating cash for the app. Referred to as “Dynasty,” the app was marketed as a subscription service which might give clients entry to skilled athletes earlier than and after video games by way of chats and streams.
Though Mike Bossy, the retired New York Islanders winger, was by no means concerned within the venture, in accordance with an agreed assertion of information, the three buyers had been launched to him by Ellis at a number of occasions and obtained emails from an individual showing to be Bossy.
Bossy didn’t personal the e-mail account. It was created shortly after the primary {dollars} had been invested within the venture and it turned inactive after the final funds. Ellis denied creating the account.
Ellis’ telephone quantity, nonetheless, was used to arrange an e-mail account whose person presupposed to be a lawyer concerned in Dynasty. That e-mail handle was used to substantiate cash transfers and supply enterprise updates, together with a valuation of Dynasty in 2018 at tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
No lawyer by such a reputation was present in Alberta or Ontario, the place he was supposedly from. The mixture of proof led Henderson to consider Ellis pretended to be the authorized staff.
NHL JERSEY PROJECT
The second largest scheme was an concept to revenue off of the NHL replacing Reebok with Adidas as its jersey supplier in 2017.
In keeping with Ellis, he once more was approached by a person whose full identify he didn’t know however who was from the “gathering world” and linked to Higher Deck. The plan was to buy among the decommissioned Reebok jerseys, have them framed by an Edmonton firm, and resell them.
In two years, six folks invested a complete of $320,000.
Henderson discovered Ellis offered the identical curiosity to a number of events and used non-disclosure agreements to maintain them from discovering out.
He additionally concluded Ellis was behind a faux e-mail account that presupposed to be the Edmonton framer concerned within the venture, which was used to lend authenticity to the deal.
Ellis had beforehand carried out non-public enterprise with the framing firm, and instructed court docket he talked to the corporate in regards to the Reebok jersey venture. However, the framer by no means really signed on.
One sufferer, who approached Ellis with considerations in regards to the deal in 2018, obtained $21,000 again, or a little bit below half of his whole contribution.
14 TOTAL CHARGES
In whole, Ellis was discovered responsible of eight counts of fraud over $5,000, three counts of utilizing or trafficking a cast doc, and three counts of id fraud.
In one other “sham,” as Henderson known as Ellis’ schemes, the fraudster presupposed to be concerned in a venture with Higher Deck that had a licensing association for Wayne Gretzky merchandise.
In one other, Ellis approached a golf buddy about attempting to accumulate Barcol from its father or mother firm.
Within the final, Ellis took cash from an worker for an actual property deal, after telling him Oilers alumni Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish had been among the many others concerned.
Ellis instructed court docket that after receiving the cash, he “gave it to the people who it wanted to go to.” However Henderson discovered there was no proof of that taking place.
Within the case of the Dynasty app, the justice wrote: “The scheme was elaborate and resulted in nearly $1.2 million being deposited into Mr. Ellis’ private RBC financial institution accounts. These funds had been used primarily to pay Mr. Ellis’ bank card debt or to discharge different of Mr. Ellis’ private debt obligations. Not one of the funds had been used to buy or promote any know-how to Microsoft or anybody else.”
A few of Ellis’ victims grew suspicious in 2018 and 2019, finally reporting him to police.
