1. Title Is the RCMP protecting afinancial scam along the
Yellowhead?
2. An officer in theSmithers Detachment has implicated the RCMP
in the protection of anembezzlement scheme which preys upon U.S.
and other foreign citizens.
3. Last week U.S. citizen Daniel Morris lodged a request for an
independentgovernment investigation of the Smithers officer with
theCommission for Public Complaints Against Royal Canadian Mounted
Police in Surrey.
4. Morris filed the request after the officer refused to pursue
proper investigative action on his claims against alaw firm which
he alleges is at the center of the embezzlement.
5. According to Morris, he sold a property last September in
the northern part of the province, in the Stewart District.
6. The buyers of the Stewart property, Claus and Lynnda Rygaard
of Dease Lake, were represented by the Smithers law firm of Perry
and Company.
10. Morris represented himself in the sale. Records show that
he had no legal services contract or written agreement with the
Perry firm to represent him in the property transaction or in any
other legal matter.Per a fax of early October, Morris specifically
notified the firm that he did not want to enroll their
services.
11. He had been told by a solicitor in Terrace that in B.C., a
lawyer's dual representation of both a seller and a buyer in a land
transfer conveyance isprohibited[ Law Society of British
Columbia,Disciplinary Rules, Appendix 3, Real Property
Transactions, 2(b), 5(d), 6. ]
12. Perry came into the sales equation only as the
interimholder of the Rygaards' payment money. Under Canadian law,
anon-resident sellerof property like Morris is initially able to
collect onlyseventy-five per centof the sales proceeds. The
remaining twenty-five per cent must be retained by the buyer's
attorney in a bank trust account.
13. Once a T2062 compliance certificate application form
subsequently is submitted to Canada Revenue and the amount of the
seller's estimated capital gains tax is calculated , thatestimated
tax is paid from the trust account; the balance of fundsin the
account is then wired or mailed to the seller.
14. Morris claims that in his instance he wasnever wired
theentire remaining balancefrom the sales trust funds once Ca
Revenue's taxes were paid.
15. The trust account had been set up by Perry, the Rygaards
attorney, in the Smithers branch of the Royal Bank of Canada.
Morris states that after Ca Revenue was paid, the Perry
firmwithdrew money from the account for its own enrichmentwithout
his written or verbal permissionand then authorizedthe bank to wire
him only what wasleft.
16. Morris contends that the RBC in Smithers allowed the firm
to make the withdrawal only because of the misrepresentations of
firm owner John Perry and because of his influence withinthe bank
.
17. Perry seemingly duped the local RBC president, Ian Grieve,
into believing that his firm had a written agreement to represent
Morris as a client; and that it had done extensive legal work for
him with Canada Revenue.
18. Perry told Grievethatthe firm spent an exorbitant amount of
its time in preparing and submitting to the Canada Revenue Agency
in Surrey Morris's application for the T2068 tax compliance
certificate which was needed for the sale to finalize.
21. Perry managed to convince Grievethat his firm thus had the
legal capacity to withdraw supposed fees for its services from the
RBC account in which the sale proceeds had been deposited several
months earlier.
22. But Canada Revenue's records for the Morris/Rygaard sale
demonstrate the opposite of what Perry toldthe bank.
23. It was Morrispersonallywho prepared and submitted the
paperwork, and transacted the telephone business with Canada
Revenue's Surrey office, in obtaining the estimate for the due
capital gains taxes and ultimately the compliance certificate which
Canada Revenue mailed to his home in the States.
24. The agency's Surrey files show that the only Ca
Revenue-related action in which the Perry firm ever became involved
was in releasing a check from the RBC sale trust account funds to
Canada Revenue for the payment of its estimated taxes.
25. Note that Canadian law required that the 25% reserve of the
sales proceeds be kept within the account of the buyer's attorney
rather than that of the foreign seller .Morris could not have
opened the trust account himself, only Perry, the Rygaards'
attorney.
26. No contract with Morris, no written permission to impose
any kind of fees on Morris, no permission to withdraw any money
from his sales proceeds: none of those essential legal requirements
were of apparent consequence to the Perry firm.
27. John Perry knew that Morris was not represented by legal
counsel. Morris was a prime target for an unauthorized withdrawal
of money from thesales proceeds trust account to which Perry had
access.
28. Perry apparently assumed that his clout with RBCwas great
enough to allow him to remove money from the trust account, for his
personal profit, without suspicion or criminal ramifications.
29. Quite simply Perry assumed that he could get away with the
misappropriation of Morris's moneythough he hadno real legal
foundation upon which to do so:no actual written authorization to
charge any firm deductions against Morris's sales proceeds; no
court judgment for supposed fees to be paid by Morris; and no other
pretext for withdrawing the funds.
30. John Perryjust evidently believes thathe and his firm
areabove the law.
31. Every one commitstheftwho,having received , either solely
or jointly with another person,moneyor valuable securityor a power
of attorneyfor the sale of real or personal property ,
32. with the direction [stipulation] that the moneyor a part of
it, or the proceeds or a part of the proceeds of the security or
the property shall beapplied to a purpose orpaid to a person
specifiedin the direction,
33. fraudulentlyandcontrary to the direction applies to any
other purpose orpays to any other person the money or proceeds or
any part of it.Criminal Code of Canada,Art. 322(1).
34. John Perry knew that his firmhad avictim ripe for the
picking.
35. Morris was enraged. He contacted the RCMP in Smithers.
36. The detachment was requested toinvestigate Perry's
unauthorized withdrawal of money from the sales funds
account,andhis giving of false information to RBC that he had
performed extensive work in preparing and submitting a T2062
application to Canada Revenue in behalf of Morris.
37. From the outset, the detachment staff was reluctant to
investigate the Perry firm. According to Morris, the very first
Smithers constable with whom he spoke on the Perry complaint told
me, you realize how powerful that man is? He's got buddies in the
court.
38. Morris had to file acomplaint against the RCMPand obtain
the input of a neighboring detachment in Houstonin order to
compelthe Smithers unit to even look at what Perry had done.
39. Smithers Sergeant Sean Wadelius prepared a formal written
agreement between Morris and Smithers Staff Sergeant Sheila White;
White agreed that a full and proper investigation of the Perry
allegations would be conducted and appropriate action taken.
40. Corporal Andrew Hunter of the Smithers detachmentwas
assigned to investigate the Perry case.
41. Hunter told me , says Morris, that if Perry didn't come
clean and return all funds which he had no permission to withdraw,
he was going to court and get a warrant for Perry's arrest .
42. The situation then deteriorated furtherfor Perry,by his own
doing . Perry could furnish Hunter with no documentation which
showed that he ever had acontractual legal
representationrelationship with Morris.
43. Nor could Perry produce documentation in which Morris
agreed to pay him fees for anything. Nor could Perrydocument
written permission from Morris to withdraw fundsfor his own
personal profitfrom the Royal Bank of Canada property sales monies
.
44. Hunter was seeking any evidence that could support Perry's
supposed defense to Morris's complaint: Hunter needed any
substantiation that the firm'swithdrawal of funds from the trust
accountfor its own enrichment was legally authorized .
45. Hunter was seeking any substantiation that the withdrawal
of funds in any reasonable manner could be construed as a fee
dispute in a civil agreement which Perry was claiming to have had
with Morris.
46. Hunter's task was straightforward:eitherJohn Perry could
produce a legal agreement with Morris or he couldn't.
47. Without such a written agreement, without express written
permission from Morris under which he could withdraw money from the
sale proceeds, Perry's removal of the funds from the account
constituted an from a trust account.SeeEMBEZZLEMENT OF
FUNDS.PDF
48. AlsoIts All About Money.
49. Perry's excuse for the unauthorized withdrawal was akin to
a robber who breaks into an automatic teller machine.
50. When he gets caught, he then incredulously tells theRCMP
that he was just borrowing money , that he was just having a civil
loan disagreement with the bank. The bank didn't owe its robber;
Daniel Morris didn't owe John Perry; he wasn't John Perry's
client.
51. Desperation breeds disaster .Perry foolishly presumed that
he could pull the same deceptive stunt onthe RCMP and Hunter which
heused upon Ian Grieve at the RBC.
52. Perry had asserted his original excuse for the withdrawal w
ithin a facsimiletransmission to the detachment, ie. that he
allegedly had done an extensive amount of workin getting the Canada
Revenue certificate of compliance for Morris;See
PERRYRCMPFAX.PDF
53. that Morris had authorized him to do so; that Morris should
be responsible for fees whether or not there was a legal contract
between them.
54. Perry then resubmitted a copy of theT2062 application form
which he stated that his staff had manually completed andsent to
Canada Revenueas part of that extensive work for Morris in
obtaining the agency's compliance certificate.
55. But recall: Canada Revenue's records show thatno such T2062
application was received by the agency from Perry . TheonlyT2062
application which Ca Revenue has on file is that which Morris
himself completed, typed, and mailed to the agency as part of his
own personal steps in obtaining the certificate.
56. The T2062 application form which Perry transmitted to the
Smithers RCMP detachmentwasbogus.
57. Perry's act of submitting the false document to legal
authorities revealed just how criminally far he would go to fighta
complaint over his misconduct which had been brought by a
non-lawyer, by an ordinary person. John Perry was willing to
fabricate evidence during the course of an RCMP criminal
investigation to avoid admitting his original wrongdoing.
58. There was no issue of fact with whose interpretation he
could play lawyer games. Canada Revenue Agency's
recordsconfirmedthat no application to act in Morris's behalf was
ever transmitted to it by the Perry firm.Morris never signed the
T2062 application which Perry claimed his firm sent to the
agency.
59. Perry had complicated the issue oftheft of property sales
proceeds with the issue of his submitting false and misleading
evidence to the RCMP during an official investigation.
60. Linked is the fabricated a pplicationto delude the RCMP and
the Royal Bank of Canada about hissupposed time-consuming work as
Morris's attorney.There was no such work . There was only John
Perry's siphoning of money from thesales proceeds which had
beentemporarily escrowed in anRBC trust account.See
BOGUST2062.PDF
61. Also linkedis theactual C anada RevenueT2062 application
form which Morris prepared and transmitted himself to the agencyin
October, 2009. SeeACTUALT2062.PDF
62. The files of the Surrey Canada Revenue Office turn out to
be John Perry's Waterloo in this scam.Embezzlement has been
compounded by the crime of perversion or obstructionof justice.See
PERVERSIONOFJUSTICE.PDF
63. CorporalHunter was faxed completepaper work on Perry's
fabrication of the Canada Revenue T2062 application form.
64. MAY, 2009: it was five months since Morris first reported
the Perry scam to the Smithers RCMP.Morris demanded that the
detachment either compel Perry to return the stolen funds or that
the RCMP institute criminal proceedings against him and
hisfirm.
65. Hunter suddenly wentsilent on the Perry investigation. For
two weeks, Morris claims, Hunter would not return his telephone
calls. Then, on May 7, 2009 Hunter sent Morris an email.
66. Dear Mr. Morris. I am sorry but. . . " Unfortunately, there
is not much more we can do in our investigation. Your options are
to either sue PERRY and Co civilly or contact Revenue Canada and
speak to V. SUEN. We at this timecannot prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that any fraud or misrepresentation occurred."
67. Hunter had been pressuredinto dropping the Perry firm
investigation. Hunter was using his position in the Smithers
detachment to protect John Perry from prosecution.
68. There is another grossly disheartening realization which
everyone reaches after reading this story. Morris is not Perry's
only victim. The people of B.C. also now are his prey.
69. The Smithers RCMP detachment, at least Corporal Andrew
Hunter, and the prosecutor who worked with Hunterin falsely
disposing of this case as a civil issue, epitomize the extent of
John Perry's attack on the institutions of this province. The
entirelaw enforcementandjudicial processhas been compromised by Mr.
Perry.
70. Mr. Perry got himself into such a deep web of
confabulations and lies that hecorrupted the very men whom we
normally rely on and trust to make the judicial process work.
71. Embezzlement is a crime.Falsifying documentary evidence
during the course of an RCMP investigation is a crime.
72. So also is it a grievous offense against the state for a
law enforcement officer and a prosecutor to conspire to undermine
anhonest investigation and prosecution of one who has broken the
criminal code.
73. Morris as noted has requested the review of the way that
the Smithers RCMP detachment deliberately contrived to
concealPerry's criminal misconduct.
74. Foreign visitors much like Canadianshave reached their
wit's end over the incredible lying by a small segment of
mountiesduring official investigations. Th ememory of Robert
Dziekanski won't go away.Nor will the other occasions where we have
seen that some of our mounties think that loyalty to their
communityequates with cover ups of crime by the high and mighty in
their towns .
75. Morris's requestalso remains pending for the specialdirect
personal intervention of E Division Commander Gary
Bass.SeeLETTERBASS.PDF
76. You know,, says Morris, I used to watch Sergeant
Prestonwhen I was a little boy. The mounties were the tops for
honesty; they were the good cops from up north .
77. What Corporal Hunter did in this cover up has sure changed
my perception of the RCMP. I hope that Commander Bass can reverse
that. I hope that he can intervene in this situation and see to it
that justice is done, to show thatno man can, like Perry did,abuse
his power and influence in a local community to circumvent the law
and government
78.
Explain the steps that now need to be taken
79. This account is based upon an interview with Daniel Morris
and with a second witness to Perry's scam. When he was given the
opportunity Perry refused to issue a contrary truthful statement of
facts. This Internet account is presented here because it needs to
be presented.
80. Perry'svictimization of a foreign citizen who was not
represented by a lawyer was unethical, indecent, and illegal. It
represents another instance in which thelegal profession in
Canadamuch like its counterpart in the U.S. ,appears to be rapidly
losing grip over the social conscience ofmany of itsmembers.
81. What John Perry did in this situation was deliberate. There
was no inadvertent mistake or oversight here. John Perry and his
law firm knew exactly the wrongs which they were committing.
82. Morris spoke via telephone with Perry's paralegal, Hayley
Catton,in mid December, 2008. The conversation occurred when Morris
first learned of Perry's unauthorized withdrawal of personal funds
from the RBC property sale account.
83. When he voiced his dismay over thewithdrawal of the trust
account funds without a factual or legal basis, Catton became
embarrassed. Her words ?
84. Mr. Morris, I told John [Perry] we weren't the ones who got
the compliance certificate. He told me to charge the fees anyway. I
will ask him to call you when he returns from lunch .
86. BEWARE To all non-Canadians, be on your guard when dealing
with Canadian solicitors who are representing the buyers in a
property sale when you yourself do not have an attorney.
87. Like John Perry, the buyer's attorney may just be getting
his hands on the buyer's check, depositing it in his lawyer trust
account, and then absconding part of the proceeds from you.
88. As the games arrive, and travel and property sales
transactions increase,foreigners should be increasinglyvigilant of
scams like Perry's. They also should be especially aware of the
wrongful influence of many of these wealthy swindlers on their
local RCMP detachments.
90. and BEWARE. DO NOT USETHE ROYAL BANK OF CANADA for foreign
property sales transactions.
91. Next Steps of Action
92. Even after discovering that John Perry had lied about his
legal relationship with Morris and his supposed capacity to
withdraw funds for his personal use, the RBC refused to allow
Morris to file an insurance claim for recovery of the unlawfully
absconded trust account funds.
93. The Royal Bank of Canada clearly has shown us a policy
where it will protect its major corporate customers like Perry
& Company no matter how criminal the company's misuse ofits
trust accounts. This is not the first instance in which RBC shows
us that compliance with the law isnot one of its main priorities
.
94. Your comments, feedback and suggestions will be greatly
appreciated. Please email [email_address]
95. If you find these lawyer scams andRCMP cover ups becoming
politically intolerable, discuss them with your local RCMP
detachment. Remember, most of our mounties are well-respected,
honorable public servants.
96. And contact Commander Bass's office over this incident. The
Commander is truly honorable old school.As in actuallycaring about
his and the RCMP's integrity. With your encouragement and support
he will deal sternly and quickly with this cruel attack by Perry,
Hunter and pals on the Canadian legal, judicial and law enforcement
system.
97. Also follow the news about similarincidents of RCMP
corruption and cover ups of criminal misconduct.