Longtime London monetary adviser faces legal charges and a number of civil fits after police allege he defrauded individuals of practically $2M.
Printed Oct 17, 2024 • Final up to date Oct 17, 2024 • 8 minute learn
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Sitting in her London dwelling near photographs of her son who was fatally shot in 2012, Jean Zak is coping with one other blow: the likelihood she might have misplaced a six-figure funding with Robert (Randy) Hawken, her former monetary adviser. (Derek Ruttan/The )
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Longtime London monetary adviser and insurance coverage dealer Robert (Randy) Hawken, 66, faces legal charges and a number of civil fits after police allege he defrauded about two dozen individuals – principally seniors, one the mother of a 2012 homicide sufferer – of practically $2 million. Dale Carruthers stories.
Jean Zak was halfway by way of writing a e book about her son Jonathan, who was killed in a 2012 capturing, when she needed to cease engaged on it within the spring.
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Detailing her solely baby’s life and tragic demise at 29 was cathartic, however Zak turned overwhelmed after discovering herself embroiled in one other London police investigation.
London monetary adviser Robert (Randy) Hawken is charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000. He’s additionally dealing with at the very least 9 civil lawsuits from former purchasers. (LinkedIn picture)
Zak, 81, is certainly one of two dozen individuals who police allege have been defrauded out of practically $2 million by Robert (Randy) Hawken, a monetary adviser and insurance coverage dealer who had constructed clientele within the London space over greater than three many years.
Hawken, 66, faces legal charges and a mounting tally of civil lawsuits from former purchasers, most of them seniors, who allege he knowingly defrauded them.
After retiring from TD Canada Belief, Zak invested in a assured funding certificates (GIC), a fixed-term funding that pays set rates of interest, by way of Hawken’s firm, Dufferin Monetary Group, in 2002, she stated.
The GIC grew to about $140,000 and Zak collected annual curiosity funds each March and made a number of lump-sum withdrawals to pay for renovations and journey through the years. However this yr’s GIC curiosity cost didn’t arrive, Zak stated, and Hawken advised her he was retiring.
Then London police contacted Zak to say she was a sufferer in a suspected fraud.
Now, Zak fears she might have misplaced her whole funding and says she feels betrayed by a person who was a visitor at her seventieth party and hosted her for dinner after the lack of her son.
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“I thought he was my friend. How could he do that?” Zak stated. “I had to quit writing my book . . . I was overwhelmed and found it difficult to concentrate.”
Police arrested Hawken Sept. 12 and charged him with fraud over $5,000 and possessing property obtained by crime valued at greater than $5,000. He’s set to make his first courtroom look Oct. 22.
Invoice and Donna Anderson, 78 and 85, say they began investing with Hawken within the early 2000s after being referred to him by their former monetary adviser. In 2021, Hawken prompt the couple put cash right into a GIC yielding annual rates of interest between 4 to 5 per cent. They ended up investing $90,000, the couple stated.
“You got to remember, we trusted him,” Donna stated.
GICs are a lovely funding for retirees as a result of they’re a safe method to generate dependable revenue by way of curiosity funds, whereas being immune from inventory market volatility. The common charge for an unregistered, five-year GIC is now 4.25 per cent, up from 0.45 per cent in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, based on Ratehub.ca, a mortgage brokerage and monetary providers supplier. That charge different between 1.4 per cent and 1.55 per cent in 2021.
Hawken by no means paid out the promised curiosity to the Andersons, regardless of sending them month-to-month statements together with a certificates quantity for the non-registered GIC, they stated.
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Invoice, a retired automobile dealership accountant, was suggested by a buddy making ready his revenue tax to incorporate the GIC curiosity funds on his return. He confronted Hawken, who admitted the cash was by no means invested, the couple stated.
“It was all bogus,” stated Invoice, who stated he gave Hawken someday to repay his cash, plus the curiosity.
Hawken stated he couldn’t make a lump-sum cost, however supplied to make month-to-month funds, promising to promote his properties or let the couple take out a mortgage on his Grand Bend cottage, the couple stated.
“We said no, of course,” Donna stated.
The Andersons contacted police.
London Police headquarters (Free Press file picture)
Police allege 18 individuals have been defrauded of $1.99 million by Hawken, who they contend collected cash for investments by no means made, courting again so far as 2003. Courtroom paperwork record a further six complainants within the case.
“There may be more victims,” police spokesperson Const. Matt Dawson stated by e-mail. “We have been in contact with regulators throughout the investigation, and any further details will be available through the court process.”
Courtroom data present Hawken faces 9 separate civil lawsuits, eight of them filed by complainants within the legal case, and a few embrace his spouse Cheryl and an integrated firm he controls, Amsaral Holdings, as defendants.
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A London couple, 91 and 85, invested with Hawken for many years and by no means had any drawback drawing on their retirement funds, based on a press release of declare in a lawsuit looking for $230,000 in funding losses and different damages.
In 2010, Hawken inspired them to spend money on a brand new providing, a ladder of maturity fund, which would supply assured curiosity returns. The couple contributed $123,000 to the fund between 2010 and 2023, however none of that cash was ever invested, the lawsuit alleges.
The couple by no means obtained documentation about their funding, apart from a two-page report on Feb. 7, 2023, for an unregistered GIC, that had incorrect dates and incomplete funding quantities, the lawsuit alleges.
On April 4, Hawken advised the couple to liquidate the “ladder fund” as a result of he was retiring, the lawsuit alleges. Two weeks later, London police contacted the couple to say they’d been recognized as victims in a possible fraud.
“The LPS (London police service) further disclosed that an assistant or staff member at Dufferin Financial Group had first reported this to them and provided (police) with a list of potential victims,” the lawsuit alleges.
Lawsuit statements of declare and statements filed in defence embrace allegations not but examined in courtroom. Hawken and his spouse haven’t filed statements of defence in any of the instances.
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One other London couple has launched a $178,000 lawsuit in opposition to Hawken, his spouse and Amsaral, which lists Hawken as director and holds a mortgage on a house at 554 Waterloo St., the place Dufferin Monetary operates.
The couple had identified and invested with the Hawkens for 15 years, contributing $78,000 between December 2023 and January 2024 in a GIC, the assertion of declare alleges.
Hawken offered a press release of funding that included a certificates quantity and prompt the funding was held with Manulife Monetary, the lawsuit alleges.
Hawken contacted the couple in March and stated he was retiring and stated their investments may very well be reassigned to a different agent or cashed out, the lawsuit alleges.
The couple requested Hawken to withdraw their funding from the GIC, however he advised them he couldn’t return their cash till he had paid out “residuals,” the lawsuit alleges.
At some point later, a Dufferin Monetary Group worker referred to as the couple and stated the corporate had defrauded them and a number of other different purchasers, the lawsuit alleges.
The worker had contacted London police and suggested the couple to do the identical, which they are saying they did, based on the lawsuit. In addition they say they contacted Manulife and have been advised the corporate had no report of their GIC investments, the lawsuit alleges.
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Hawken additionally faces a lawsuit filed by a Masonic temple in London the place he was longtime member and held the rank of worship grasp.
The Tuscan Lodge, a Masonic non-profit group in London, invested $93,977 with Hawken, a member since 1991, in March after he inspired the group to speculate its “surplus funds” with Dufferin Group Monetary, based on a press release of declare.
The lodge invested $93,977.63 with Dufferin Monetary Group, plus $65,700 with Manulife, the lawsuit alleges.
The Hawkens misappropriated the cash invested with Dufferin Monetary Group and used it to help their way of life, together with to pay the mortgages, taxes and maintenance for 2 homes in London and one other in Grand Bend, the lawsuit alleges.
The Tuscan Lodge is asking the Ontario Superior Courtroom of Justice to place a certificates of pending litigation on the London properties, each listed on the market because the spring, and the Grand Bend cottage.
The certificates of pending litigation is registered on a title to a property to warn the general public the property is topic to a courtroom dispute. No dealings, together with financing, mortgaging and promoting, are allowed whereas litigation is pending. The certificates is eliminated after the courtroom case is resolved.
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Property data present the home at 558 Waterloo Road is owned by Amsaral Holdings, an integrated firm managed by Robert (Randy) Hawken. (Derek Ruttan/The )
The four-bedroom home at 558 Waterloo St. has been listed on the market since March 3. The $549,000 asking worth has been slashed twice because it was first listed for $699,000.
Property data present the home is owned by Amsaral Holdings.
The three-storey home at 554 Waterloo St. is listed for $1.05 million, down from the unique practically $1.3-million March asking worth.
The Tuscan Lodge and the couple who filed the $174,000 lawsuit have been added as mortgage holders on each Waterloo Road properties, based on property data exhibiting the Tuscan Lodge is owed $106,417 and the couple $92,491 – cash that should be paid out to them if the home is bought.
Robert (Randy) Hawken’s firm Dufferin Monetary Group is positioned at 554 Waterloo St. in London. (Derek Ruttan/The )
Hawken declined touch upon the legal and civil allegations in opposition to him.
“My lawyer told me not to talk about it,” he stated when reached at his Grand Bend cottage. Hawken declined to offer his lawyer’s identify.
Cheryl Hawken didn’t return calls requesting remark.
Robert Hawken has owned Dufferin Monetary Group and labored as monetary planner since 1989, based on a LinkedIn profile eliminated shortly after police introduced the fees in opposition to him Sept. 13. The profile additionally listed Hawken as a previous president and district deputy grand grasp of the Freemasons in London.
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A spokesperson for the Monetary Providers Regulatory Authority of Ontario stated the allegations in opposition to Hawken have been referred to the Institute for Superior Monetary Training, the physique accountable for disciplinary motion that holds an authorized credential for somebody with the identical identify as Hawken.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Funding Regulatory Group (CIRO) stated Hawken hasn’t been registered with the regulator since 2010. CIRO was created in 2023 by way of a mixture of the Funding Trade Regulatory Group of Canada and the Mutual Fund Sellers Affiliation of Canada.
Zak, in the meantime, stated she’s been consumed by worries and has had bother sleeping since studying her GIC funding with Hawken could also be gone.
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Jean Zak stated she feels betrayed by Robert (Randy) Hawken, her former monetary adviser whom she thought of a buddy. “How could he do that?” (Derek Ruttan/The )
“I lost my stable income and I no longer had financial security,” she stated. “I feel tension, anger and hopeless now.”
The stress is compounded by the grief Zak nonetheless feels from the lack of her son Jonathan, killed by a shotgun blast when two males tried to rob him of his backpack as he reduce by way of an east-end park on his approach dwelling after an evening taking part in video games with pals on Could 31, 2012.
The case remained unsolved for 5 years till investigators charged two males, certainly one of them already in jail for an additional deadly capturing. William McDonald was convicted of second-degree homicide and sentenced to life with no parole eligibility for 25 years, whereas Thomas Lako was convicted of manslaughter and given a 12-year sentence.
Requested what Zak wish to say to Hawken, she replied: “How could you do that to me when you know I lost my son?”
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