When he was 24 years old, Eddy had almost everything anyone could dream of. Although he achieved his goal sooner than he expected, there was still one thing that bothered him. He felt lonely. While Dylan had a very active social life and every few months he was dating a new woman, Eddy had none. He was pursued by many women but he was very shy. He was also afraid that these women were more interested in his money and not in him.

Eddy’s parents were concerned about his lack of a social life. They didn’t like the fact that he was working all the time. At some point, they thought maybe he wasn’t interested in women and wasn’t comfortable talking with them about it.

Anyway, Eddy had many clients and over the years he developed close relationships with some of them. They would invite him to their family gatherings such as weddings and bar mitzvahs, etc. Eddy didn’t like parties at all so, he would typically go to each event for a few minutes out of respect for his client.

However, he had one client in Montreal Alain, who he really liked, and had a special relationship with. Alain was one of his first clients. He owns several car dealerships and he purchased the child protection device which he installed in every car he sold. As a result, Alain’s business gave a big boost to Eddy’s business when he was just starting out. Therefore, when Alain’s family made a surprise birthday party for him, Eddy flew by himself to Montreal to attend the event. Dylan was also invited but could not make it.

Eddy knew all of Alain’s senior employees and sat with them when he arrived at the party. One of the group introduced him to Natalie, their new corporate lawyer who had recently started working at the company. Natalie was a very bright person and was two years older than Eddy. She was impressed with Eddy from the moment she saw him. She thought he was quite young, and yet a very wise person. As she was single she thought to herself, he is going to be the one for me.

Nevertheless, Alain opened up a new dealership in Halifax and Natalie was supposed to transfer there. Natalie was Alain’s wife’s niece. She had an impressive resume despite her young age. In addition to being an excellent student, Natalie worked at a few prestigious law firms in New York. Therefore when she returned home to Montreal, Alain recruited her to work at his company right away.

Anyhow, when Alain suggested she would move to Halifax and be the head of the legal department there, Natalie was happy with the promotion. Yet, she was not happy about leaving her family and friends behind. All this changed when she saw Eddy. Suddenly she felt energized and enthusiastic about the transfer. She also felt he would be a challenge for her as he was introverted and shy and she would have to take the initiative with him.

A few weeks later Natalie came to Halifax to look for an apartment. She came with her mother as she did not want to go by herself. Her mother had a good friend from university who moved to Halifax after getting married to a local man. And she saw an opportunity to visit her dear friend who she had not seen for a long time. Margaret was also very curious about the guy her daughter didn’t stop talking about. She never saw Natalie so enthusiastic about any man she had a crush on before.

As much as she wanted to see Eddy, Natalie did not want to appear too eager so she decided not to call him the day she arrived. She waited two days before connecting with him. When she finally called him, she invited him to have dinner with her and her mother.

She told Eddy that her mother is an executive on the Montreal school board and she takes an active interest in anything that affects the health and safety of the students. She added that her mother would be very interested in hearing about his device. Margaret was in the room while Natalie was speaking with Eddy. She almost choked when she heard what her daughter said to him, as she had never discussed this with her before. The two of them had a good laugh together once Natalie was off the phone.

Eddy was not interested in meeting Natalie or her mother for that matter, not even to do business together. He tried to explain to her that she should speak with his partner Dylan about buying the device as this was his field. But she told him that her mother was specifically referred to him by her brother-in-law Alain and she would like to meet him.

Eddy knew that Natalie was playing games as her uncle Alain knew exactly who was dealing with sales in his company. He didn’t like it as he thought Natalie was being too pushy. But unfortunately, he didn’t have any choice, at least for her uncle’s sake……….

To Be Continued…………..

Eddy and Dylan were very disappointed with the heads of purchasing attitude. They thought they were condescending and unprofessional. Dylan felt that he let Eddy down, especially after the effort Eddy made to improve the device. At some point, he even thought he wasn’t the right person to market the product.

Dylan decided to speak with Eddy and suggest they hire a professional marketer. But before he went to see Eddy he had to take his car to the garage for an oil change. The owner of the garage Albert wasn’t just the mechanic who took care of all the family’s cars, he was also their neighbor for many years. Dylan grew up with Albert’s children and they always treated him as if he was a part of their family.

Nevertheless, when Dylan arrived at the garage, Albert could tell there was something bothering him. Since there were alone at the time, he asked him to spit it out. At first, Dylan didn’t want to say anything. And then he decided to get things off his chest. He told Albert about the device and the meetings he had with the stores. He also mentioned his father’s poor behavior towards his partner, which deeply embarrassed him. Albert felt sorry for Dylan and wished to help him.

In addition to the garage, Albert owned a car parts store that sold everything you needed for your car. Thus, he suggested that he would take a few dozen of Dylan’s devices and try to sell them at his store. Albert caught Dylan off guard but he really appreciated the offer. Although Albert’s store wasn’t nearly as large as the big box stores, he thought it was a good idea to try this out before he spoke with Eddy.

Dylan didn’t believe that Albert would be able to sell any child protectors. As a result, he didn’t say anything to Eddy about it. However, he was very surprised when Albert called him a few days later asking for more. Apparently, he had sold every one of them in no time. Albert said that one of his customers is the principal of a local school. The principal brought in his car for its annual checkup and Albert thought he should mention the device to him.

Anyway, the man decided to buy a few child detectors and told Albert he would try them out on one of the school buses. If they worked out, he would come back and buy more. A couple of days later, Albert came to his store and the principal was waiting for him to open. The principal told him that the device saved a young student who didn’t get off the bus and instead fell asleep under a seat.

The driver was sure all of the students had left the bus and that it was empty.  When the driver got off the bus and tried to lock the doors, the device suddenly started ringing and it wouldn’t allow the doors to be locked. The boy who was sleeping in the back seat woke up in a panic from the noise and ran to the door. The driver was surprised to see there was a child left behind. He comforted him and took him home once he calmed down.

The driver came to the principal’s office the next day and told him what happened and said the device may have saved the boy’s life. He recommended the device be installed on all of the other buses to prevent the situation from occurring again. The principal decided to take his advice and buy child detectors for all of the buses at his school.

However, Albert didn’t have enough available for him and he called Dylan to ask him for more. Dylan practically fell out of his chair when he heard the news and immediately called Eddy to update him. The news about the effectiveness of the child detector device spread like wildfire throughout Halifax, the province of Nova Scotia, and then the rest of Canada.

There was so much demand for the device that they couldn’t keep up with all the new orders. Dylan, who was working for his father, quit his job. He and Eddy hired several employees and their business took off like a rocket. They became millionaires in a short time and they provided livelihoods for many people. Their device was sold not only in Canada but all around the world.

While the investors were thrilled at the success of the child protectors, Dylan’s father had to “eat his hat.” Eddy bought his parents the house of their dreams. He also helped his siblings, and some of them even worked for him.

Eddy was very generous and donated money to many people who approached him and asked for his help. He also established a soup kitchen in Halifax where people could drop in and get a free hot meal. He stayed modest and never forgot where he came from. Dylan used to tell him he was too generous. He would give money to anyone who needed help. And Eddy would say that he remembered what it was like growing up when his family couldn’t afford to buy basic necessities.

Eddy believed in the saying those who give to others without expecting anything in return, will not want for anything in their lives. Well… although he was very smart, he still was young and a bit naive…..

To Be Continued……………

Eddy started working on a prototype of a child protector device when he was 15 years old. He invested a lot of time, effort, and money into it until he built a working model. The model was a bit large but Eddy was confident he could make any necessary changes in the future.

Nevertheless, Eddy wasn’t even 18 years old when he started university. He was taking engineering and was the youngest student in his class. He met Dylan at university and told him about his dream to invent a low-cost device that would prevent children from being forgotten in cars by adults.

Dylan was also studying engineering. Unlike Eddy, he came from a wealthy family. When he heard Eddy’s idea he was quite enthusiastic about it. He was sure he could raise money from his family and friends to fund the project. Therefore, he suggested the two of them become partners. He would raise the money they needed to get started while Eddy would work on developing the device.

Dylan made an appointment for them to speak with his father Charles who was a very well-known and successful businessman. He was certain that as soon as his father meets Eddy and learns about the child protector device, he would support the project without hesitation. But unfortunately, this wasn’t how things worked out.

Charles said there are several devices already on the market to prevent adults from leaving children behind in locked cars. He added that he didn’t see anything new in their product, plus he thought it was too bulky. He also didn’t see how it could be adjusted to make it more compact.

Eddy tried to convince him that the device would be able to detect a child breathing in a car. He said there wasn’t anything on the market today that could accomplish this. In addition, the cost of his device would be relatively low which meant that everyone would be able to afford one. Charles was tough on him and didn’t want to listen to what Eddy had to say. He scolded his son that he knew better than to bother him with ideas or products that had no potential for success.

Eddy felt humiliated after the meeting and Dylan felt embarrassed at how his father treated his friend. Dylan told Eddy his father had no right to behave this way. He said he was arrogant and stupid. He always thought his father had the ability to recognize talent and a good business opportunity but obviously, he was wrong about him.

Despite their disappointment, the two young men didn’t have any intention of giving up on their great idea. Even after Dylan was rebuffed by everyone he asked to invest in their project, they continued approaching other potential investors. At some point, Eddy decided to consult with his favorite professor at the university. The professor really valued and supported his students and was impressed by Eddy’s perseverance.

He suggested Eddy work on the device a little more and make it smaller. Eddy didn’t think he had enough money to continue with his work so he contacted his friend Dylan and told him what the professor suggested. Dylan said he had some money saved which he was willing to invest in their prototype in order to improve it.

Using the funds he received from Dylan, Eddy was able to improve the model and make it more compact. Once this was completed, Eddy met with his professor again. The professor was pleased with the improvements and referred them to a group of investors whom he thought they had an excellent chance of raising the additional funding they required.

The young men went to meet the group of investors and brought with them a child protector prototype which they demonstrated for them. It wasn’t easy convincing them at first, as the investors felt their product would be unable to successfully break into the market.

They told Eddy and Dylan there already were several products for sale in the market and they didn’t see how they could differentiate their product from the others. But in the end, they decided to invest in the project and agreed to give them $2 million to begin production. However, the investment came with a condition. They wanted 40% ownership. But the boys managed to talk them down to 35%.

Eddy worked on the device for several months until he was pleased with the results. He finished working on it just before Christmas which was a great time to bring it to the market. Eddy and Dylan agreed that Dylan would do the sales and marketing as he had experience in the field from working with his father since he was a teenager.

Dylan went to big box stores like Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, etc, which he thought could be potential customers. But nothing came of his efforts. The heads of the purchasing departments agreed to meet with him just because of his father’s reputation. They gave him a few minutes of their time and then politely explained to him that they weren’t interested in the device at the present time……….

To Be Continued…………..

Eduardo who everyone called Eddy, grew up in a family that struggled financially. He was the youngest of five children. All of his great-grandparents emigrated from Italy to Halifax Canada. Halifax is the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and the largest city in Atlantic Canada.

The great-grandparents worked mainly in agriculture to support their families. However, Eddy’s father Bruno worked at Home Depot for many years. His salary was low and he wasn’t appreciated by his employer as he should have been. His mother Angela cleaned houses for a living during the day when Eddy and his brothers were at school. She insisted on being at home every day when her children came home from school and welcomed them with a freshly cooked meal.

There was no money for luxuries such as vacations or a new car. Bruno drove a used car that he couldn’t afford to replace for several years. The family was united and did almost everything together. Eddy and his brothers didn’t have many friends. The kids at school used to make fun of the old clothes they would wear. They called them derogatory names and refused to play with them. Many times they were not invited when there was a class party at a student’s house.

Eddy was an excellent student, and the teachers liked him. He had a dream that he would be a rich man one day. Eddy was giving private lessons to other students since he was 12 years old. He was also babysitting the neighbor’s children. Eddy would go to work with Angela when he was a little boy as she couldn’t afford a babysitter or to put him in daycare.

He was a curious boy who wanted to know about everything. He loved watching the National Geographic channel as well as Discovery TV. Thus while his mother was cleaning the houses, he would sit and watch TV. He would always tell his mother he would invent something one day and he would not let her work ever again.

Eddy had a hard time seeing his mother cleaning other people’s houses. He always thought she worked too hard and wanted to help her but was too young to help. Anyway, when he was 13, he insisted on going to work with her when he was on school break and helped her in any way he could. While his classmates were having fun, Eddy was tutoring other students. He managed to save some money and help his parents as well.

He was a beautiful boy but was quite short for his age. However, he started getting taller when he turned 13. At the age of 14, he was the tallest boy in his class and couldn’t be ignored anymore. Suddenly girls started paying attention to him. They wanted to be around him which put him in a very awkward position and made him feel uncomfortable.

The boys in his class who humiliated him in the past were now jealous of him as a result of the attention he received from the girls in the school. Some of them even changed their attitudes towards Eddy and tried to be more friendly with him.

Nevertheless, Eddy had a dream about inventing a cheap device that prevented adults from leaving children behind in the car by mistake. When he was 4 years old he was accidentally left behind on a school bus. His mother Angela would usually pick him up from the bus stop every day, but that day she sent his brother Shawn instead because she was tied up at the time.

Shawn was frantic when all the kids from their neighborhood got off the bus and Eddy wasn’t among them. He asked the driver “where is my baby brother?” The driver said that he hadn’t seen him. He added that this was the last stop and the bus was empty. He suggested they look for him at the school as maybe he was there. Shawn returned home in a state of panic and told his mother that Eddy wasn’t on the bus.

Angela called her husband Bruno and asked him to come home immediately. Both of them went to the school to look for their son. They went from room to room and asked anyone they met if they had seen Eddy. But they had no luck, as no one had seen him.  At that point, they decided to involve the police who promptly began their search for Eddy.

Some of the police were looking for him using search dogs. Others were sent to speak with the children in his class who were on the bus and ask them if they saw him. A few of the children said they were sure he had been on the bus. Some of the policemen also went to check the bus. When the driver unlocked the bus, the policemen found Eddy sitting in a seat and shaking and crying. Luckily several windows on the bus were open so he could breathe fresh air.

However, he was in poor condition. The police covered him with a blanket, and also gave him some food and water until his parents arrived to pick him up. Eddy was very lucky as he was found a few hours after he was reported missing…………..

To Be Continued…………….

Once you post something on social media, you can’t take it back or delete it. It is the same idea when you put a video of someone online. In addition, you don’t know how they would react if they see it online or if they see you taking a video or picture of them.

I heard a sad story recently about a couple who went to see an apartment for rent and it ended in tragedy. On their way back, they were waiting at a crosswalk for a green light to cross the street. When the light changed to green a motorcycle suddenly came out of nowhere, drove through a red light, and almost hit them.

The woman managed to take a picture of the driver driving against the red light. When the driver realized she took a picture of him, he drove back and blocked her path while she was crossing the street. He stopped her and said, “give me the picture.” What he meant was, give me the cell phone. She said to him “it’s OK, I’ll delete the photo.” But the driver insisted she gives him the phone.

Her husband walked towards his wife who was still blocked by the motorcycle. He asked the driver to leave them alone and go on his way. The driver quickly reached into his bag and pulled out something sharp. He suddenly stabbed the man in his chest and drove away. The husband didn’t realize he had been stabbed. He managed to walk a few steps and told his wife he wasn’t feeling well. He then collapsed. He was rushed to the hospital by ambulance where he was pronounced dead.

The driver of the motorcycle was identified shortly afterward and was well-known to the local police as a criminal. He took the life of another person simply because someone took a picture of him. As it turns out, the picture was blurry and unclear. It goes without saying that the wife was in shock after the event.

When she was asked what she would have done with the picture, she said she wasn’t sure, maybe she would have posted it online, or maybe send it to the police. Unfortunately, she didn’t know she was taking a photo of a psychopath. What normal person would behave the way he did?! I get angry just writing about what happened. I hope this scum will sit in jail for the rest of his life……

Here’s another story that recently took place. Lori picked up 3 of her children and was driving home. Her 12 year old daughter was sitting next to her and decided to take a video on her phone of the drive home. But the daughter didn’t think she would be a witness to acts of violence committed against her family while driving home.

While her mother was driving, another driver came out of nowhere and was driving much faster than the speed limit. He cut her off without signaling and was so close to their car that Lori had to slam on the brakes to prevent an accident. The young girl kept taking the video and then the aggressive driver realized he was being recorded. He unexpectedly stopped his car and blocked them.

He then got out of his car with his baseball bat in his hands. He walked towards their car and started hitting it with his bat and was shouting like a crazy person. He kept screaming “how dare you video me.” The kids sitting in the backseat were screaming and crying and their mother was in shock. Lori tried to call the police but her hands were shaking too much and she was unable to make the call. Her daughter kept videoing the guy even though she was also scared and shaking.

Fortunately, another driver who was just passing by was brave enough to stop his car, get out of it, and tried to help them. He asked the violent man to leave the family alone and drive away. At that time, the violent man had already caused thousands of dollars of damage to the car and started hitting the windshield. He cracked the windshield and caused the family to panic.

He suddenly stopped hitting the car and walked towards the other driver. However, the Good Samaritan had a gun in his car which he had a license for. He quickly took it out but didn’t point it at the aggressive driver. When the violent man saw the gun, he got scared, ran back to his car, and drove away.

Lori couldn’t continue driving after the incident. She called the police and reported what happened. She also gave them a description of the vehicle the violent man was driving as well as the license plate number. The police located the man a few hours later and arrested him.

Lori registered a formal complaint against him with the police and the video her daughter took was used as evidence against him. His lawyer said that had the daughter not taken a video of his client, none of this would have happened. He said it was an invasion of his privacy and that what she did was illegal. Nevertheless, there are cameras throughout most cities and on highways too. But in this case, the cameras closest to the scene did not work and weren’t recording at the time.

On the one hand, it’s good that the girl took a video and recorded the entire episode. But on the other hand, had she not taken this random video maybe the whole thing wouldn’t have happened.   However, although the family went through a very traumatic experience, thank God they weren’t physically hurt. Their car can be repaired, which the insurance company will take care of.

In conclusion, you never know for sure who you are dealing with and one needs to be careful………

A large number of people document almost everything that happens to them on a daily basis and post it on social media. Most of the time nobody cares what they write about. But they feel good about themselves so……. who cares. Besides, it is a kind of therapy for them as they are saving money instead of paying for a psychologist……. LOL. Anyway, they frequently criticize a place that they’ve recently been to such as a restaurant or a coffee shop, or any other place that has served them. Sometimes their criticism is correct or justified, but other times it isn’t and this harms other people’s livelihoods.

As well, as everyone today has a cell phone with a camera, they’ve become photographers and videographers. People take pictures of anyone who says or does silly things. Sometimes they take a video of someone they had an argument with just to shame them or invade their privacy. But I have to say that some of those people more than deserve public shaming.

Here are a few examples. Ruby lives in a small village. One afternoon she decided to bake a cake for her daughter’s birthday. Since she didn’t have everything she needed she went to the neighborhood mini market to buy a few ingredients. The owner of the store was working at the cash register when she came to pay. They chatted a little bit while she paid the bill and then went on her way.

But when she got home and looked at the bill, she realized she received much less change than she should have. She went back to the store and told the owner she paid with a $100 bill but he only gave her change for a $50 bill. The owner said he didn’t remember her giving him a $100 bill. In addition, as it was the middle of the day, he wouldn’t be able to check all his transactions until they closed. However, he told Ruby he would check everything at the end of the day and would let her know.  He promised that if he found she was short changed, he would gladly pay her back.

Later that evening, he called her and said he didn’t find any extra change in the till. Ruby, who was frustrated by his answer, posted a warning on Facebook about shopping at the store. She wrote about what took place that day and said this situation frequently happens and customers need to pay attention when getting change from the cashiers. She added that customers are purposely engaged in small talk with the cashiers and are distracted, instead of being focused on counting their change and making sure the amount they receive is correct.

I must draw your attention to the fact that this is a small town and everyone living there knows everyone else. However, several people responded to her post. She was engaged in many conversations with people online. The supermarket owner was furious when he saw she was publically questioning his honesty and integrity. He decided to sue her for libel as he claimed her false accusations were harming his livelihood.

The court asked Ruby for proof that this situation has happened to others as she claimed. She admitted she had no proof of it and mentioned she never meant to harm the store owner. She also admitted she couldn’t prove she paid the cashier with a $100 bill either. Mind you, the store owner didn’t get all that he asked for from the court. But the judge ruled Ruby must pay the owner a sizeable sum of money as compensation as well as pay all of his legal fees.

There is no way to know for sure if she is right or wrong. But one thing is for sure. She should have checked the change she received before she left the store…..

Adam and Vanessa were married for approximately 15 years and have 2 children. They didn’t agree on almost anything during the course of their marriage, which caused a lot of stress and instability in their relationship. But it turned into a war when they decided to get divorced. They were constantly fighting about the division of property, their children, child support, etc. They were unable to compromise on anything. As a result, they paid their lawyers a lot of money in legal fees, which made the lawyers very happy.

Nevertheless, after an exhausting 3 years, they finally came to an agreement and finalized their divorce. Adam felt he had to compromise on a number of issues with Vanessa in order to be released from their miserable marriage. He was bitter a few days after the divorce was concluded. Therefore he decided to let off some steam and publish some posts on social media.

He cursed and humiliated his ex-wife and called her a tramp and a psycho. He said had he not married her, nobody would have and he did her a big favor. In short, he dragged her name through the mud. Vanessa decided to sue his ass and said she was publically humiliated in front of her family, friends, and business clients.

The court said that Facebook and other social media can be platforms to deeply hurt people. He ruled unequivocally that what Adam said was evil and ugly and constituted defamation of character. He ordered Adam to pay Vanessa $50,000 in damages plus her legal fees.

In conclusion, I have a feeling that next time Ruby and Adam will think twice before releasing steam on social media………..

When Mike decided to build luxury condos in Victoria, he asked Mark to be on site a few days a week. Mark didn’t like the idea at first. He liked being in Vancouver where he had friends, and the city had a lot to offer. In contrast, Victoria is a much smaller city where a lot of retired seniors live and he didn’t think it was the right place for him. Anyway, after giving it some thought, he realized he could make a lot of money by spending a few days a week in Victoria.

When he arrived there, he was determined to explore the city and the surrounding area to learn what the city had to offer. His head started to work overtime once he found out Victoria had an exclusive club for singles only. Mark was a very likable person and he had a very good rapport with others. He made friends easily wherever he went and also gained the trust of others quickly.

Nevertheless, he created a fake profile before he joined the club. He presented himself as divorced and gave the names of two colleagues at work as references. They gave him glowing references when the club called to verify the information Mark gave them.

His colleagues were in fact working with him to steal money from the company they were working for. They were more than happy to back him up whenever he needed it. The three of them worked together like a well oiled machine. They didn’t care who they hurt along the way, all they were interested in was getting their hands on more money.

When Mark arrived at the club for the first time and saw Mary Anne, he immediately recognized her from the TV and newspapers. She was well known as her story was extensively covered by the media. Everyone knew about her fight against the insurance company that didn’t want to pay her claim when her husband died. Mark knew that Mary Anne sued the insurance company, won big time in court and became a wealthy woman.

He thought to himself that Mary Anne would be easy prey for him, and he was right. She fell in love with him in no time. By the time he met her, he already knew all the condos had already been sold. But this didn’t stop him from selling some of the units a second time.

In order to make this work, one of his accomplices had to pretend to be the owner of the project and the other his executive secretary. The secretary gave Marry Anne a bank account number to make her down payment along with all other payments for the condo. However, the account wasn’t one that belonged to the real estate company. In fact, it was an account set up by Mark and his buddies and the funds deposited there went to them. Mark would then generate a fake receipt which he would give to Mary Anne.

Mary Anne wasn’t the only one who was deceived by Mark. He misled her friend Jackie along with others he met at the club. Mark didn’t think about the consequences of his actions on his family or even about his own future. He lived as though tomorrow didn’t exist.

Anyhow, a receiver was appointed by the court to manage its affairs after the company that built the condos was declared bankrupt. The receiver decided to put the buildings up for sale and they were bought by a Canadian developer.

Once the sale went through the receiver paid the bank, the legal fees, as well as all other fees. Then the other creditors were paid. The last ones on the list were the condo owners, who got peanuts. Those poor people lost a lot of money. Unfortunately, some of them put most of their savings into the condos and were left with practically nothing. People like Mary Anne, Jackie, and others who were directly deceived by Mark, were not listed as creditors. Therefore, they had to personally sue Mark in order to get their investment back.

However, Mark’s family was shocked by his behavior. His children decided to disconnect from him. While his wife decided to stand by him after he persuaded her his actions were due to his addiction to gambling. Basically, he manipulated her the way he always did. He told her he started gambling because he felt lonely as he was far away from his family and she accepted his explanation.

Mark’s lawyer claimed the other two employees were the masterminds behind the crimes and they were the ones who stole most of the money. He maintained they took advantage of his condition and blackmailed him. The court wasn’t impressed by this line of defense. To make a long story short, Mark was sentenced to 15 years in jail and fined $5 million. As the other two were able to return some of the stolen money, they were sentenced to 12 years and fined $2 million each.

Mary Anne and Jackie and the others reached an out of court settlement with Mark’s wife. She generously agreed to pay half of what Mark stole from them. Their lawyers advised them to accept her offer as otherwise, they would have to wait for the legal process to work its way through the courts. And even then it was unlikely they would receive anything close to what Mark’s wife was offering them.

Sadly, when a company goes bankrupt it can frequently drag other companies and individuals down with them like a collapsing house of cards and this is a tragedy…………

Since the police publicized Mark/Kevin’s picture, at least 6 women posted on Facebook that they had relationships with the man who went by a different name every time. These women joined together to form a group and exchanged information with each other about the man.

They all thought that he was the best thing that ever happened to them until he disappeared. All of the women were either widowed or divorced and were well off. The women said that after Mark disappeared, they found out their credit cards were used by someone else and money was mysteriously withdrawn from their bank accounts.

Mark/Kevin was caught a few weeks later in Mexico, and then some information about him started to come out. He was married to Nancy, the daughter of Mike the owner of the real estate company. They had four children and lived in Seattle. He was born in the United States and moved to Canada with his parents and two siblings when he was four years old. His father also worked in the real estate field. He even worked in the same development company where his son was working for a while.

However, Mark’s wife knew he liked to flirt with other women and she accepted it. She loved him very much and was not willing to leave him because of that. Nancy also knew he would never leave her for another woman. Still, she didn’t know he had so many relationships with others. Her father, who was a very wealthy man, owned a few real estate development companies and one of them was in Vancouver.

Mike trusted and valued his son-in-law very much. Mark was a brilliant economist and Mike thought there was no one better than him to be the director of finance when he decided to establish his company in Canada. He offered Mark the job but only after receiving his daughter’s approval that her husband would be regularly away from home. Nancy didn’t like the idea at first but on the other hand, she knew this was a big promotion for Mark. And besides, this job in Canada was only temporary. In addition, the company offices were in Vancouver, which wasn’t too far from Seattle where they lived.

Anyway, Mark began working in Vancouver but felt a bit lonely without his family after a while. He began to socialize after work with some new friends that he met through his job. They would go out for drinks together, meet for dinner, go to a casino, etc. Mark started gambling here and there and found he really enjoyed it. He then started visiting casinos on a regular basis. At first, he won pretty often which gave him the confidence and motivation to continue gambling.

However, he soon started losing. This motivated him to go to the casinos more often and would place larger bets. He was sure if he continued gambling he would win his money back. But this didn’t happen, he lost more money than he earned. Mark earned a good living and was spending all of his salaries at the casino. At some point, he finally understood he couldn’t afford to gamble away his entire salary. Although he and his wife had separate bank accounts, they both had access to each other’s accounts and Mark didn’t want her to know how much money he was spending.

Anyway, Mark started looking for another money source to fund his addiction. As he was a handsome and smart man, he decided to take advantage of his charm and good looks. He noticed that numerous single women who came to the casino would stare at him and some of them even made a move on him. Thus, he decided to try his luck with them.

His plan was to target widowed women who came from an upper class background. Sometimes he would compromise and set his sights on divorced women. He would always do some research on the women he wanted to be involved with. They had to have a lot of money, and he made sure they were living by themselves.

After he earned their trust and became a fixture in their house, he would hack into their bank accounts and credit cards and steal money from them. Then he would disappear. It usually took some time until the women found out what happened. Yet, they couldn’t contact him about the unexplained credit card charges and cash withdrawals from their bank accounts.

Mark would always date a few women at the same time. However, the money he stole from these poor women wasn’t enough to cover his gambling debts. So he started stealing money from his company as well. Mark was a very smart man but not smart enough to completely cover his tracks. 

A short time after he started stealing money, two employees he worked with found some financial irregularities when they were reviewing the records. They knew Mark had a big gambling problem and came to him with proof he was embezzling money from the company. They told him he either paid them to keep quiet about the theft or they would call the police and report what they found. At first, Mark denied he’d done anything wrong but he knew they had too much evidence against him. As a result, he agreed to their terms………..

 

To Be Continued………….

One day after Mary Anne returned home from the cruise, she received a phone call from her banker who asked her about a few large purchases that were made on her credit card. The transactions took place both in Canada and the US in cities she had never visited. The banker also asked her if she transferred large sums of money from her chequing account to a company she had never heard of before. Mary Anne said that she didn’t make any credit card purchases for the last few weeks. In addition, she hadn’t made any cash transfers from her chequing account for over a month. She immediately checked to see if her credit cards were stolen but they were both safely inside her wallet.

Anyway, Mary Anne spoke with Mark several times while she was on the cruise as she wanted to be updated on his son’s condition. The last time she spoke with him, he told her his son needed to have surgery in the US and therefore he wouldn’t be in Victoria anytime soon.

However, a few days after her conversation with the bank, her real estate friend called and told her there were rumors that the company that was building the luxury condos in Victoria had run into financial difficulties. He said he wasn’t 100% sure this information was correct. Thus, he suggested she talk to her boyfriend about it, as he was knowledgeable about the company and had also invested in a unit. Mary Anne told him his information had to be wrong because if Mark knew something like this was happening, he would have told her immediately.

Later on, Mary Anne tried to reach Mark several times but she went to voice mail every time she called him. She left him several messages but he didn’t call her back. She was sure that something happened to his son. She tried to call the development company the day after, but there was no answer there either. Mary Anne started to worry as she had invested a lot of money in the condo which was supposed to be ready soon.

A few days later an announcement was published in the newspaper that the development company declared bankruptcy. Mary Anne felt as though she would have a heart attack. Jackie was also frustrated. Neither of them knew what to do. Mary Anne didn’t want to say anything to her children as she didn’t want them to worry. She decided to keep the news to herself for a while.

Several buyers tried to break into the job site and take possession of their units after the announcement went public. Many people put their life’s savings into the condos as they were promised the suite would produce a high return for them. People were demonstrating for days at the job site and the ones who broke into the buildings were forcefully thrown out by police.

Nobody knew why the company, which was thought to be in good financial shape had to suddenly declare bankruptcy. It took some time but the picture slowly became clearer. It turned out that a senior employee embezzled company funds. This person was the director of finance. He wasn’t the only one defrauding the company, there were two others involved as well. The two aroused the suspicions of management who decided to open an investigation. When the suspects had their backs against the wall, they exposed the mastermind.

The director of finance couldn’t be found. Therefore, the police asked the public for help in locating him. They put his picture in the newspapers and online and received dozens of phone calls from citizens claiming to have seen him. But unfortunately, all of these leads turned out to be false.

Mary Anne didn’t see the newspaper the day the police published the pictures of the director of finance. She usually reads the paper when she comes home from work. Nevertheless, this was the end of the term at school and she was very busy this time of year. Jackie and Mary Anne’s children had been trying to call her all day after they saw the photo. But she muted the volume on her phone and wasn’t aware anyone had been trying to reach her.

When she finally looked at her phone, she saw she had several missed calls. She called her son Larry who said he had some bad news for her. He told her to find a private place at the school where she could speak with him. Then he dropped the bomb and told her Mark’s picture was made public by the police and he was suspected of embezzling millions of dollars from the real estate company where he was the director of finance.

Mary Anne was shaking when Larry gave her the news and almost passed out. Her son kept talking and said that the name next to his picture was Kevin and not Mark. At that point, Mary Anne wasn’t hearing anything he was saying. She could barely stand and all she wanted to do was throw up. When Larry noticed his mother was silent, he told her to stay where she was and that he would come to get her………..

To Be Continued……………..

Mary Anne had more than enough money to invest in the project Mark told her about. She got a lot of money from the insurance company after Jerry died. In addition, since she was an only child, she inherited her parent’s entire estate when they passed away. Mary Anne was still working and thus didn’t touch the insurance money or her inheritance.

Yet, she had no experience investing in real estate. She always invested very conservatively as she was afraid of losing money. She never invested in stocks as she felt they were too risky, even after Jackie made a fortune in the stock market. The last thing she wanted was to be financially dependent on her children.

However, Jackie’s enthusiasm for investing rubbed off on her and she thought maybe this project would be a good idea. Mary Anne googled the company that was building the condos. She found out they have projects all over North America. She also learned they have an excellent reputation. She decided she would invest in one of their condos after she read more about the company and consulted with a real estate investor she knew and trusted.

She didn’t want to say anything about her decision to her children as she didn’t want them to talk her out of it. Therefore, she shared her plan with Jackie who showed interest in it as well. After deliberating for a while, she told Mark both of them were interested in purchasing condos and asked for his help.

Mark told her that he knows the owner of the company very well, but he wasn’t sure if there were any condos available for purchase. He said that even if there were, they would be paying a higher price than he did for his unit as they had already started construction. Mark added that the apartments sell out very quickly for projects like this one. But he promised to speak with the owner and see if anything was still for sale, as well as the price.

Mary Anne was very happy to hear this especially since Mark had so much knowledge in the real estate field. She updated Jackie, who told her she didn’t know much about real estate but trusted that Mary Anne was thorough and checked all the small details.

A few days later, Mark called and said he spoke with someone high up in the company. He was told there were 3 condos left and he has to speak with the owner if he wants a better price. Mark had already booked a telephone appointment with him and was sure he could arrange a good price for her. In fact, they were supposed to talk later that evening.

A couple of hours later the owner’s secretary called and put through his call to Mark. They immediately started talking about the real estate market, some projects they were working on, as well as new investment opportunities. It seemed as though they knew each other quite well.

Mark brought up the topic of the condo project in Victoria. He then put the call on speaker and mentioned his girlfriend Mary Anne and her friend Jackie, who both wanted to purchase a condo. He asked him to reduce the price so that they would pay the same as before the concrete foundation had been poured. The owner didn’t hesitate. He told Mark they have known each other a long time and he’s more than happy to sell them condos at a lower price.

However, the ladies had a provide a down payment of at least 30% of the total cost within the next few days. Mark looked at Mary Anne who nodded OK and the owner said he would put them in touch with his secretary who would fill them in on the other details. A few hours later Mary Anne and Jackie transferred the money and were both thrilled. Mark took both of them to the job site to see for themselves how the project was progressing.

Mary Anne and Jackie were required to make additional payments as the project moved forward. Mary Anne didn’t want to say anything to her children until the condo was ready to rent. She also realized that it cost her much more than she thought it would.

Although they were in a relationship, Mary Anne and Mark continued to attend events at the club. Therefore, when the club’s management announced they were organizing a 2 week cruise to Alaska, they quickly registered for it and made deposits. Mary Anne was excited as this was the first trip they were taking together outside of Canada.

But unfortunately, a few days before their departure, Mark told her he couldn’t go as one of his children was sick and he needed to stay in Victoria. Mary Anne was disappointed but decided to go on the cruise anyway. Even though she missed Mark, she enjoyed herself and had a great time………

To Be Continued………………