Mr. Larry Elford,
I am contacting you to seek your kind advice in respect of our savings including RRSPs invested with a Calgary Real Estate Company as I learn through internet about your having written "Rules of Law in Investment Industry". Part of our investment done against one commercial building, which has gone in to Receivership with RSM Richter Calgary, due to non-payment of interest against bank secured loan by Real Estate Company, is not likely to be received back. 180 days notice for our RRSP withdrawal as per loan agreement was given to this company which will be over by this month end. The maturity period for RRSP loan is already over. These RRSPs were invested through Canadian Western Trust Vancouver and have Canadian Western (CWT) account numbers. CWT Operations Manager confirmed through a letter attached with the loan agreement that our RRSP are under safe custody. The Real Estate Company's Chief Executive is not responding to our communication regarding paying back our RRSP amount. CWT informs that they will pay back to us only after getting the money from Real Estate Company. I complained to Better Business Bureau Calgary but this company did not respond to BBBs various communications as a result BBB have changed their rating for this company from A+ to F. I request you to please advise in the matter as I have lost faith in this company after loosing my investment in the commercial building.
With Regards
R. S
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Subject: Re: Investments with Real Estate Company
From:
lelford@shaw.caDate: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:28:12 -0600
To:
R, I truly sympathize with your plight.
I would be happy to chat with you if you wanted to drive to Lethbridge (2 hours south) and see if I see any options that might help you. I am not confident, however, since your dealings might have taken place outside my normal area of expertise.
My area where I have experience is with licensed salespersons, those licensed and registered with the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC), and products which fall under the purview of this commisison.
If the real estate investments you invested in qualified for an rrsp, they indeed may have been issued under the ASC. They may also have received permission to violate our securities laws, and if that is the case you may have grounds for asking for your money back if they did not inform you of this.
You can check this by looking at the ASC web site
http://www.albertasecurities.com/Enforc ... rders.aspx and doing some searching for the company name that you invested in.
Please search from a few different pages on the ASC site as I found sometimes that helps turn up results that do not always appear at first search.
Also look at the page on the ASC on "registrants" and do some searching for the name of the person and the company that sold you the products.
Look for their license category and see if they lied to you about their license. Look to see if there are any disciplinary actions against them as well.
Beyond that please look at
http://www.investoradvocates.ca which has several topics about getting your money back and salesperson/advisor fraud.
I hope there is something there you can grab hold of and make a difference in your situation.
Beyond that, call your MLA and write them a letter and tell them you will NOT be voting for their party at anytime in future unless they take steps to protect consumers better from the kind of fraud that occurs.
let me know if you find anything, need any help, or want to talk in person. I will gladly take some time to try and help you if I can.
larry
PS
if you know of a group of people, social club, or civic group, like Lions Club, Kinsmen, church group, social group, I am happy to come and speak to them and give people information about how to protect themselves and their investments.
take care R
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Mr. Larry Elford,
I thank you for your response and my apologies for contacting you so late.
For my RRSPs I contacted my local MLA and Better Business Bureau but did not get any help from them. BBB, after lot of correspondence, has finally written to me that Certified Financial has done nothing illegal. I am surprised to receive their response as if BBB work for the company and not for individual like me, as BBB has given this company A+, highest rating. I conveyed to BBB that this company is not returning my RRSP money ($350,000) in spite of my giving notice in Nov.2010. MLA told me that she approached Solicitor Generals Office and got information that I should take up the matter through court. Firstly I do not have the money to pay in advance to the lawyer, secondly I am not sure if the contract papers which have been prepared by the company with the help of their legal experts, will stand in my favour in court. My RRSPs are through Alberta Real Estate Board and have their reference number. But BBB say, they approached both ARSB and ASC but without any help and say that this is a private investment and they can not help. I feel this is a sophisticated type of Ponzi Scheme. My RRSP are through Canadian Western Trust but CWT do not take any responsibility for security of investment although they are charging their yearly fee. Finally I wrote a personal letter to company's President Jeffery Colvin (President of Certified Financial Savings & Mortgage Corporation & Medallion Development Corporation) explaining my old age and circumstances but got the reply that the company does not have money to pay and I should wait till company has money to pay. I feel that this company may not pay my RRSP money. I have already lost my $150,000 which I invested with this company against their business center as they lost the court case to the mortgage company as this company defaulted in interest payment against secured loan. I really feel helpless as the money I saved in 15 years for our old age appears to have been taken away by this company. I came to Canada thinking that I will lead a nice and peaceful life but instead I am struggling in the old age.
With regards
R S
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R, Again I am very sorry for your plight. I do not know what to tell you other than that I am fighting for the rights and protections of people, including yourself. But my one voice is not carrying much weight when stacked against the nearly one million people in Canada who earn a salary to be on the other side of the fence, the side of taking money from people and of not always giving them a fair and honest deal.
Unfortunately, the BBB is not much of a consumer advocate, as they make their living by charging fees to companies to join their bureau, and thus they can be bought.
You efforts to your MLA went brushed aside, as I suspect the MLA is part of the governing party, and therefore does NOT want to be part of the solution, as they are part of the problem.
It is sad to say, but I have learned that the majority of financial people in Canada are in on the game of taking advantage of customers and they also happen to be self regulated. As you can see, self regulation leads to decriminalization.
I have no easy solutions nor answers for you at the moment. I have only my
http://www.breachoftrust.ca film work and my
http://www.investoradvocates.ca web site to offer to help people. So far most Canadians are not even aware that there is a corruption problem within our financial and investment circles. I am sorry that you had to find this out in such a hard manner, as did I.
The only bright note I can find in all the hard experience, and the only thing they cannot take away from you or I, is my voice, to let others know of the problem, and let others know how to not be a victim.
That is what I am doing and I hope you will find a positive in some way from this horrible experience. Something to hang onto, work on, benefit others.
I wish you the best and I hope to hear from you again R.
Thanks
Larry