Ontario trusteeship fraud: an unlikely coincidence, according to the Crown

Robert Konashewych is accused of having created a false will in order to pass himself off as the sole heir of Heinz Sommerfeld with the complicity of Adellene Balgobin, who was working at the time at the public curatorship.

Ms. Balgobin is charged with theft over $5,000 and breach of trust, while Toronto Police Constable Konashewych is only charged with theft over $5,000.

The policeman was her lover at the time. The amount of the alleged fraud is assessed at $830,000.

In its cross-examination, the Crown reminds Ms. Balgobin who has been defending herself for two days on the witness stand.

For prosecutor Peter Scrutton, the story doesn’t add up, because the coincidences are too incredible to be true.

Adellene Balgobin’s defense is based on a chance meeting between the public guardianship employee and the police officer in 2014 when she was not yet the file manager of the deceased in this case.

Heinz Sommerfeld, who has Alzheimer’s, could not manage his fortune, which had been entrusted since 2008 to the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee of Ontario, which is responsible for managing the money of Ontarians who are unable to do so or who die without family or heirs.

Mr. Sommerfeld died in June 2017 at the age of 77.

Couple’s alleged scheme

Ms Balgobin has so far explained that she realized the policeman was Mr Sommerfeld’s only heir when he called her about the septuagenarian’s funeral arrangements.

Mr. Konashewych told me over the phone that he had a will from Mr. Sommerfeld that dated from 2006.she repeats.

On the contrary, the Crown accuses her of having warned the police when she learned that Mr. Sommerfeld had just died. No that’s not trueshe says.

Recalling their meeting, the 36-year-old woman again expressed her astonishment before the court, realizing that she was dating, at the time and without knowing it, the heir of one of her clients.

She explains that the name of the police officer was mentioned in the last will of the deceased under the pseudonym Bob Kay, as evidenced by the will which was kept with Mr. Konashewych’s parents.

The Crown questions her about this, but Ms. Balgobin replies that it is not uncommon for heirs to use nominees when dealing with the public curatorship.

This may be for language reasons, for example.she says.

She admits that she recognized Bob Kay’s voice, but adds that her voicemail greeting at the curatorship is neutral and stripped of her employee name, so Mr. Kay could not have known with whom he was talking on the telephone unless Mr. Konashewych had recognized his mistress’s voice.

Ms. Balgobin states that Mr. Kay’s new telephone number did not surprise her and that she imagined that Mr. Konashewych had two different numbers. I only knew the number he has under the identity of Robert Konashewychshe says.

The Crown accuses him of having sought to protect the identity of his co-defendant in the event that their relationship was revealed.

A secret conflict of interest

Me Scrutton also asks her why she did not notify her employer when she realized in 2017 that Mr. Konashewych was Mr. Kay. It would have been easy to give the file to a colleague? he wonders.

I don’t know, I didn’t want to clutter them with my filesshe replies, saying that she attended the policeman for three years before learning of the death of Mr. Sommerfeld.

She adds that she was afraid to reveal such a conflict of interest to her employer, because her superiors believed that she was still married to a Trinidadian, who had remained in their country of origin.

Rob Konashewych’s ex-fiancée, Candice Dixon, is the one who spilled the beans to the police about the cop’s dealings with the public trustee.

Photo: Facebook/Candice Dixon

The Crown also questions the tense relationship in their couple as the ex-official affirms.

She cites all the trips Ms. Balgobin and Mr. Konashewych took at the time of Mr. Sommerfeld’s death: Las Vegas in May 2017, Punta Cana in October 2017, New York in November 2017, Las Vegas in September 2018 and again. Las Vegas in March 2019.

Mrs. Balgobin repeats that they never spoke of the legacy of the septuagenarian and that their relationship knew ups and downs.

Prosecutor Scrutton reminds him that Mr. Konashewych touched his inheritance during the summer of 2018. No, he never told me what he intended to do with his moneyshe points out.

Chance encounter with the deceased

The trial has so far shown that Mr Konashewych knew Mr Sommerfeld from when he worked as a security guard at Toronto’s Woodbine Racetrack casino before he became a police officer.

I don’t know where exactly they met at the racetrack, I never went there, but he told me that Mr. Sommerfeld would one day leave his assets to him, because he was without familyshe continues.

She admits that the coincidence is surprising, but not enough to ask her lover for an explanation. There’s nothing suspicious about itshe says.

Mr. Scrutton quips by reminding him that the curatorship had 15,000 clients at the time and the Toronto region, 3.6 million inhabitants. It’s amazing that you methe exclaims.

Constable Konashewych is suspended from the Toronto Police Service with pay while Ms. Balgobin has not worked at public trusteeship since early 2019.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Andy Hincenbergs

Ms. Balgobin also assures that she has always kept Mr. Sommerfeld’s estate documents confidential without ever bringing them home outside of working hours.

Mr. Scrutton does not believe anything and projects on the screen a document, which shows that the file of the deceased had been taken out electronically from the data network of the provincial agency.

My work on this file was never the subject of our private discussions between Mr. Konashewych and me.she continues.

One last hurdle to overcome

The Crown finally accuses Ms. Balgobin of having signed the act of validation which authenticates the police officer as being the official heir of Mr. Sommerfeld so that he pockets the fortune of the septuagenarian.

However, according to her, the employees of the rank of Ms. Balgobin are not authorized to deal with this type of procedure.

The trial effectively revealed that curatorship employees are divided into two categories: SCRs (senior client representatives) take care of the files of the agency’s clients who are still alive and the TRU (trust reporting unit) are responsible for transferring the property of clients who have died.

Ms. Balgobin again vigorously denied the prosecutor’s allegations in this regard.

The trial showed that the employees of the public curatorship are subject to very strict rules in terms of confidentiality and privacy.

Photo: iStock/Zolnierek

She explains that employees can still manage files of deceased clients, when outstanding questions have not been elucidated, for example. We work closely togethershe says.

Rather, Ms. Scrutton suggests that Ms. Balgobin did not want a colleague from the other department to deal with the transfer of Mr. Sommerfeld’s inheritance to his heir, because she had to sign the document herself. to approve the transaction without raising suspicion.

The prosecutor then showed the jury correspondence between Ms. Balgobin and Mr. Konashewych’s notary in which she insisted that he communicate with her and not with the department. TRU.

It’s not the job of a SCR to help her lover complete a certification of will, it is up to TRU to dohe accuses her. No sirshe answers.

The trial of Adellene Balgobin and Robert Konashewych is taking place before 14 jurors in the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Esteban Cuevas

Ms Balgobin finally claims that she never revealed to Mr Konashewych that Mr Sommerfeld had a half-brother named Peter Stelter and that she managed to find him in February 2018 through 411 assistance.

She also denies having watered down in her relations with Mr. Stelter the nature and extent of Mr. Sommerfeld’s assets when she spoke with him.

He told me they lost touch 30 years ago and he didn’t know his half-brother lived in a seniors’ residence in Torontoshe concludes.

Unlike the defense of Adellene Balgobin, that of Robert Konashewych decided on Thursday afternoon not to call his client to the witness stand, so that the three parties will present their final arguments to the jury on Tuesday morning.