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COP SAYS LSUC COULD HAVE DONE MORE TO STOP FRAUDSTER A police investigator who helped put a fake lawyer behind bars says the Law Society of Upper Canada should have taken more aggressive action on complaints from the public. David Villanueva was jailed in March for a $150,000 fraud scheme that saw him pose as a lawyer. "I personally have a lot of questions about what was done on the law society's end to inves- tigate the complaints that had come in early on," says Toronto police Det.- Const. Corey Jones. "They were the first ones to have been notified about anything suspicious going on with this individual." Law society spokesperson Susan Tonkin wouldn't comment on the case but in an e-mail said clients can verify a lawyer or paralegal's status through the law society's online directory. The latest chapter in Villanueva's case began in late 2006 when he fled Nova Scotia and set up shop in Toronto, says Jones. He obtained fake identification in the name of David Carter, forged tax returns, opened bank accounts, obtained credit cards, and took on the persona of a successful Miami lawyer. He hung out a shingle in downtown Toronto for a firm he called Carter Herzog. Villanueva, 48, then hired employ- ees, including two actual lawyers, one of whom, Marc Charrier, said in a victim impact statement that the fraud by his former boss left him depressed, caused him to lose weight, and put him in financial distress due in part to not receiving $7,000 in pay. Villanueva attempted to attract cli- ents by advertising in ethnic media outlets and offering services for those dealing with Workplace Safety and Insurance Board or immigration mat- ters. Clients were told he could help them land a massive settlement from the WSIB and charged a retainer of $500 to $2,000. On top of that, he told WSIB claimants they couldn't keep any settlement they had received if they hoped to appeal it and got them to give him the money to hold in a trust account, says Jones. But he had no trust account and placed those funds directly into bank accounts of David Carter. In an effort to show clients he had completed work on their behalf, Villanueva would create fictitious letters purportedly sent to for- mer employers or the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, says Jones. But as time went on and a grow- ing number of clients saw no results stemming from their cases, they came forward with complaints starting in the middle of 2007 to the LSUC, says Jones. In the meantime, Jones notes the two real lawyers at the firm, both recent Ontario law graduates in their first jobs, were the only ones doing bona fide legal work. "In fact, it was one of them that began to see that nothing ever really was coming of the work that Carter was supposed to be doing. That originated a complaint again with the law society, as well with the police themselves." By then it was the fall of 2007, and Villanueva began to see the young law- yer was catching on to the fraud. He proceeded to complain to police that the lawyer had stolen laptops from the office, prompting the pair to part ways. "But it wasn't really until the end of 2007 when the whole house of cards started to fall apart," says Jones. There were now several staffers in the office and the firm had a number of clients eager to resolve their matters, says Jones. Meanwhile, Villanueva was running up other debts, says Jones. "Clearly, he could see at this point that he was run- ning a real risk of being found out. . . . It's known that he went around and viewed some $1-million homes with one of his employees who he'd convinced he'd buy the home and put it in her name." By Christmas 2007, Villanueva knew the game was over, says Jones. He threw a big office party, gave his employees the week off between Christmas and New Year's Day, and then disappeared. Villanueva received an eight-year jail sentence for convictions on three fraud charges, says Jones. Meanwhile, aside from a letter sent by the LSUC, Jones says he didn't come across any additional indications that the public was protected by law soci- ety oversight in the Villanueva case. "Certainly, upon seeing this individual had no registration or history with the law society, certainly investigators should have attended personally, and preferably unannounced, to determine what was going on at that office," says Jones, who suggests police and the law society could benefit from better com- munication in general. — ROBERT TODD rtodd@clbmedia.ca The Ontario Municipal Service Directory: A Comprehensive Guide for Real Estate Professionals, 2010 All the municipal services information you need for real estate searches under one cover Order your copy today at www.canadalawbook.ca • 1-800-565-6967 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com M AY 2010 9 W ith Introduction and H istorical Linkages by Michael L. Y oung, LL.B.