Reasons for Decision

Court File No.: CR-23-087 (Kingston)
Date: 2025-03-11
Ontario Superior Court of Justice
Between:
His Majesty the King
– and –
Martin James Stover, Defendant

Appearances:
Courtney Cottle, for the Crown
Michael Woogh, for the Defendant

Heard: 3, 4, 5 and 6 March 2025, at Kingston

Reasons for Decision
Graeme Mew

Introduction

[1] Until his arrest on the charges now before the court, Martin Stover was an investment adviser. He now faces charges of theft and fraud relating to two of his former clients, as well as a charge of obstructing a police officer in the execution of his duty.

[2] In the case of Mr. Stover’s clients, Harry and Cheryl Whitehead, it is alleged that Mr. Stover was given $150,000 to invest in a guaranteed investment certificate (“GIC”). The $150,000 has never been returned, nor has it been accounted for.

[3] Mr. Stover denies that the Whiteheads ever gave him the money to invest in the first place.

[4] Peter Voight, another client, gave Mr. Stover $75,000 to invest. Mr. Stover does not deny receiving a cheque for $75,000 drawn on Mr. Voight’s numbered company and payable to Mohave Holdings Ltd., a company wholly owned and controlled by Mr. Stover. Mr. Stover claims that he invested the $75,000 in a company called Allstate Financial Service. The $75,000 was never returned to Mr. Voight, who eventually went to the police.

[5] Allstate Financial Service is believed to have been a fraudulent scheme: Mr. Stover’s defence is that both he and Mr. Voight were the victims of that scheme.

[6] The obstruct justice charge arises from Mr. Stover’s interactions with Detective Constable Dan Silver during the course of his investigation of Mr. Voight’s complaint.

The Offences

[7] The offence of theft is contained in s. 322 of the Criminal Code, which provides:

322 (1) Every one commits theft who fraudulently and without colour of right takes, or fraudulently and without colour of right converts to his use or to the use of another person, anything, whether animate or inanimate, with intent
(a) to deprive, temporarily or absolutely, the owner of it, or a person who has a special property or interest in it, of the thing or of his property or interest in it…

[8] Theft of property worth more than $5,000 is an indictable offence.

[9] Fraud is defined in s. 380 of the Criminal Code as follows:

380 (1) Every one who, by deceit, falsehood or other fraudulent means, whether or not it is a false pretence within the meaning of this Act, defrauds the public or any person, whether ascertained or not, of any property, money or valuable security or any service,
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence…where…the value of the subject-matter of the offence exceeds five thousand dollars…

[10] Section 129 of the Criminal Code provides that every one who wilfully obstructs a police officer in the execution of his duty is guilty of an offence. Obstruction of justice is a hybrid offence which can be charged as either an indictable offence or an offence punishable on summary conviction.

[11] In this, as in any criminal case, the person accused of a crime is presumed innocent. That presumption can only be displaced if the Crown proves the guilt of the accused person beyond a reasonable doubt.

[12] Proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean proof to a standard of absolute certainty. The standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt falls much closer to absolute certainty than to probable guilt.

[13] Probable or likely guilt is not enough. As Molloy J. observed in R. v. Nyznik, 2017 ONSC 4392, at para. 7:

If all I can say is that the defendants in this case are likely guilty, I must acquit. It would not be safe to convict someone of a criminal offence with only that degree of confidence. Before I can find the defendants guilty, I must be sure that they committed the offence charged.

[14] Mr. Stover testified in his own defence. Accordingly, in analysing the evidence, I must also bear in mind the principles established by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. W.(D.), [1991] 1 S.C.R. 742, which, applied to this case, require me to ask and answer these questions:

1. Do I believe Mr. Stover’s evidence? If I do, I must acquit him.
2. If I do not believe Mr. Stover’s evidence, but I am left in reasonable doubt by it, I must acquit him.
3. Even if I am not left in doubt by Mr. Stover’s testimony, am I convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of the guilt of Mr. Stover on the basis of the evidence which I do accept?

The Evidence

[15] Martin Stover is currently 63 years old. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and was licensed as an investment adviser in 1986.

The Clients

[16] Mr. Stover was already acting as a financial adviser to Harry Whitehead’s father when, in the late 1990s, Harry Whitehead and his wife Cheryl Whitehead became his clients. When providing investment advice to them, Mr. Stover explained that he would generally present them with multiple options, but leave it to the clients to choose what they wanted to invest in.

[17] Mr. Stover has known Shawn Voight for nearly 40 years. Mr. Voight’s sister was married to Mr. Stover’s brother. Mr. Voight was Mr. Stover’s client for about 30 years. As with the Whiteheads, when providing Mr. Voight with investment advice, Mr. Stover said he would present his client with two to three options and have him “pick the best solution from there”.

The Whiteheads

[18] In 2015, Harry and Cheryl Whitehead sold their house in Mississauga and moved into a cottage property in Parry Sound which they had renovated for year round occupancy. As a result, they had some money which they wanted to invest. They contacted Mr. Stover, their long time investment adviser. After talking to him on the phone in June 2015, the Whiteheads gave Mr. Stover $300,000 to invest with Empire Life (in various different funds), and, they say, a further $150,000 to be invested in a specialised GIC.

[19] According to Harry Whitehead, Mr. Stover said that he had a company that would give them a better return, turning the $150,000 investment in 2015 into a $225,000 return by the end of 2024.

[20] Cheryl Whitehead explained how she and her husband had couriered what she described as two drafts to Mr. Stover, one a bank draft for $300,000, and the other, she said, was a personal cheque for $150,000, payable to Cheryl Whitehead, and endorsed by her over to Mr. Stover.

[21] Harry Whitehead also testified that two drafts had been provided to Mr. Stover in the amounts of $300,000 and $150,000 respectively. However, he said that the $150,000 payment had been by way of a bank draft payable to Marty Stover.

[22] A copy of the $300,000 bank draft, which was made payable to Mohave Sierra Holdings, was produced. Ms. Whitehead said she has been unable to locate a copy of the $150,000 cheque. However, the Whiteheads were able to produce a copy of a “customer receipt page” from Scotiabank in Parry Sound indicating that two drafts had been purchased on 30 June 2015 – a $300,000 draft payable to Mohave Sierra Holdings Ltd., and a $150,000 draft payable to Cheryl Whitehead. The customer receipt page also included details of two transfers, each of $75,000 (i.e., totalling $150,000) as well as some other clearing items. It was not immediately apparent from this customer receipt page, and no explanation was provided, as to whether the two $75,000 transfers were related to the funding of the $150,000 draft.

[23] Whereas the Whiteheads would regularly receive statements from Empire Life with respect to the investments that they held with that company, the only information they ever got about the GIC was contained in spreadsheet printouts prepared by Mr. Stover.

[24] In 2016, Mr. Whitehead says that Mr. Stover had told him that he was setting up another company and asked Mr. Whitehead if he wanted to become a partner. While the proposed business partnership never came to fruition, Mr. Whitehead did end up lending Mr. Stover some money. Ms. Whitehead said that she had understood that the Canada Revenue Agency had put a lien on Mr. Stover’s house, and that the loan was to help Mr. Stover pay off the Canada Revenue Agency. Whatever the reason for the loans, there were two payments, of $50,000 and $18,000 respectively, loaned to Mr. Stover by Mr. Whitehead with funds provided from Mr. Whitehead’s credit line at Scotiabank. The loans were never repaid although, according to Ms. Whitehead, Mr. Stover did make interest payments for approximately eighteen months.

[25] Mr. Whitehead eventually became upset about Mr. Stover’s failure to repay the loans. Then, in 2019, Mr. Stover told Mr. Whitehead that he was no longer working with Empire Life. At what would appear to be around the same time, the Whiteheads received a communication from Empire Life, indicating that Mr. Stover was no longer associated with them. According to Mr. Whitehead, Mr. Stover told him there was a staffing problem at Empire Life. Mr. Whitehead described this as sending up “a red flag”. The Whiteheads decided that they should find another adviser. They looked into how much it would cost to get out of their Empire Life commitments, and asked Mr. Stover to provide details of the GIC. According to Ms. Whitehead, Mr. Stover never provided any documentation concerning the GIC, despite multiple requests.

[26] Two documents which were entered as exhibits at trial did made reference to a GIC. The Whiteheads received a document entitled “Permanent Record” dated 20 September 2019, which is a printout of a spreadsheet created by Mr. Stover (or his office), on which various investments held by Mr. Whitehead are listed. At the bottom there is a line with a number of columns which, reading from left to right, contain the following words or numbers:

GIC
23415
aug 1 2017
aug 1 2024
4%
150,000.00
162,024.00

[27] There are a number of headings in the columns above these various entries. Not all of them correspond with the information contained in the cells. However, the information would appear to represent that the GIC investment date was 1 August 2017, the maturity date 1 August 2024, the rate of return 4%, the original deposit $150,000, and the current market value $162,240.

[28] When Mr. Stover was asked at trial about this line in the Permanent Record, he said that it was a “mistake”, and, specifically, that the line entry was unrelated to any investment made by the Whiteheads in 2015. Indeed, as already noted, Mr. Stover’s evidence is that he never received a cheque or draft from the Whiteheads for $150,000 and, as a consequence, did not invest that amount for the Whiteheads in 2015 as they claim.

[29] A second document filed as an exhibit appears to be some sort of email or printout of Mr. Whitehead’s holdings with Empire Life. The document is authored by Krista Bruce, Investment Capital Service at Empire Life. It lists a number of investments which correspond with Empire Life investments listed in the Permanent Record dated 20 September 2019. Ms. Bruce’s communication appears to be dated 26 September 2019. There is some handwriting on the document which Mr. Stover confirmed was his. It reads:

Harry. Krista omitted GIC. However the value on Aug. 12/19 is the same as today Sept. 28/19 (162,240) as interest is credited annually on Aug. 1.

[30] Mr. Stover testified that the writing on this document should not be there. He said that “that” investment had been omitted from the records that Krista Bruce at Empire Life had referred to. Mr. Stover’s counsel asked him if the line about the GIC on the Permanent Record should not be there, where should the $150,000 that is represented there be? Mr. Stover responded, “that was in Empire Life in other investments”.

[31] Mr. Stover steadfastly maintains that he received only a single payment of $300,000 from the Whiteheads, all of which was invested in Empire Life. He added that the Whiteheads only had $300,000 to invest. He claims that they would have had no more money than that from the sale of their home.

Shawn Voight

[32] Over the years, Mr. Voight, either personally, or through a numbered company owned by him, invested approximately $1.1 million in a variety of investments through Mr. Stover, including GIC’s, mutual funds and an RRSP. On average, Mr. Stover says that he would place three to five investments for Mr. Voight each year. Some of those investments were made in Mr. Voight’s own name. Others were made through a company owned by Mr. Voight. With the exception of RRSP season, Mr. Stover would typically be contacted by Mr. Voight when Mr. Voight had some extra money that he wanted to invest.

[33] Mr. Voight confirmed that when he had some extra cash, either personally or in his company, he would call Mr. Stover, who would come over (usually to Mr. Voight’s place of work), and after discussing options, Mr. Voight would make the investment.

[34] In November 2014, Mr. Voight and Mr. Stover met. Mr. Stover told Mr. Voight that there was an investment that was doing very well. On 21 November 2014, Mr. Voight wrote a cheque to Mohave Holdings Ltd. on his corporate bank account. Mr. Voight says that he believed that Mohave Holdings was the company he was investing in.

[35] Mr. Voight explained how, normally, he would get statements from the financial institutions that his investments had been placed with. He did not, however, get any statements from Mohave. When Mr. Voight or his accountant needed an update, Mr. Stover would write something out and drop it off with Mr. Voight.

[36] Although he had written cheques to Mr. Stover perhaps twenty times over the years, until 21 November 2014, Mr. Voight had not previously written a cheque payable to Mohave. He had assumed Mohave was what he was investing in because when he gave Mr. Stover cheques, the payee was always the entity that the money was going to be invested in.

[37] Mr. Stover says that the $75,000 which he received from Mr. Voight in November 2014 was invested with a company called Allstate Financial Service. He testified that he had met the Allstate people at a conference in Ottawa earlier in the spring of 2014. That conference had been sponsored by Manulife. Mr. Stover never attended the published business address of Allstate Financial Service in Ottawa.

[38] Mr. Stover produced a copy of an agreement (which was also described as an application) that had been “accepted” on 25 November 2014, and which included the name of Mr. Voight’s numbered company, its address and telephone number, and bore a signature, which Mr. Voight confirmed was his. However, Mr. Voight testified that he had seen the document for the first time when it was shown to him at trial. Just above the signature line, the following words appear:

Allstate Financial Service has reviewed all documents and this agreement. Please sign and complete all documents. This is the contract between the client and our firm.

[39] Another document, which Mr. Stover kept a copy of, dated 25 November 2014, and addressed to Mr. Voight’s numbered company, purports to be a “confirmation notice”. It records a gross transaction amount of $75,000, with a corresponding market value of $75,000. It bears an electronic signature of Debbie Taylor, Chief Financial Officer. A third document dated 25 November 2014, a copy of which was also retained by Mr. Stover, and also bearing Debbie Taylor’s electronic signature, is titled: “Learn How Private Lending Opportunities Can Help Diversify Your Investment Portfolio”. The document goes on to describe how “there has never been a better time to become a private lender in Canada”. Again, Mr. Voight says he had never previously seen these documents.

[40] Mr. Stover claims that after the Allstate application had been completed by Mr. Voight, it had been faxed to Allstate, with the original being sent subsequently by mail. While he kept copies of the three pages filed in evidence, which I have just made reference to, he did not keep copies of the terms and conditions which he said had formed part of the application.

[41] Mr. Stover was asked about the transmission of Mr. Voight’s $75,000 investment to Allstate Financial Service. Although the processed cheque written by Mr. Voight on his numbered company’s account bears the stamp of the TD Bank branch on Gardiners Road, Kingston, where Mr. Stover and Mohave Holdings had their accounts, Mr. Stover’s claim is that Mr. Voight’s cheque was never deposited to the credit of Mohave’s account. Rather, he says, because of his personal relationship with TD, the funds represented by the cheque were somehow sent directly to the TD account of Allstate Financial Service, or one of its affiliates. Mr. Stover said that he had been sent this banking information, including account numbers in Ottawa and other financial information, by Paul Barron of Allstate.

[42] It is important to note that the cheque from Mr. Voight’s company was not a certified cheque. Nor was the cheque endorsed by Mr. Stover (or otherwise on behalf of the named payee, Mohave Holdings). Mr. Stover says that he was given a receipt, although none has been produced.

[43] Peter Gentile is Shawn Voight’s accountant. From time to time, Mr. Voight would provide Mr. Gentile with information concerning his investments, including statements, which Mr. Gentile would then attempt to reconcile with Mr. Voight’s, and his company’s, bank records.

[44] On 28 January 2016, Mr. Gentile received a fax from Marty Stover Financial. It detailed some of the investments which Mr. Voight had through Mr. Stover. Mr. Gentile was already aware that his client had written a $75,000 cheque attributable to an investment in Mohave Holdings Ltd., but Mr. Gentile did not have any other information concerning that investment. Mr. Stover’s note made reference to a “step rate” for a GIC issued on 24 November 2014, maturing on 25 November 2019. From this information, Mr. Gentile says he was able to figure out the income earned on this investment for the purposes of the numbered company’s tax return.

[45] Mr. Gentile observed that there was a different $75,000 investment made by Mr. Voight earlier in 2014. That was with Empire Life. A transaction confirmation from Empire Life was produced.

[46] A “Permanent Record” spreadsheet, similar to the one provided to the Whiteheads, was produced. It is dated 19 June 2019 and includes some check marks and question marks added in pen by Mr. Gentile. A GIC #1150726 with an original deposit amount of $75,000, a deposit date of 27 November 2014, a maturity date of 27 November 2021, an accumulated value of $86,925.15 and an interest rate of 3.5% is shown. Mr. Gentile explained that his marks were made because he did not have any other confirmation of the GIC, although the amount of the cheque which Mr. Voight had written to Mohave and the dates seemed to match.

[47] On 10 March 2022, Mr. Gentile wrote to Mr. Stover asking him for information concerning the $75,000 investment in Mohave Holdings. Mr. Gentile writes that Mr. Stover had previously indicated that the investment was a step rate GIC maturing either in November 2019 or 2021. He continues, “this time had passed and Shawn has not received any information about this. Would you have any contact information for this company?”

[48] Mr. Stover responded on 24 April 2022, apologising for the delay and stating:

…In Nov of 2021, shawns [sic] money matured and renewed at 3.5% until nov 2022, then 3.75% for the following year and 4% for the remaining 3 years to 2026. i know you need to calculate interest for his company and you have all that info to nov 2021 which would be the figures you would use.

[49] Mr. Stover acknowledged that neither the Permanent Record sent to Mr. Voight, nor the correspondence with Mr. Gentile, made reference to Allstate. He said this was because the $75,000 investment was the only one he had with Allstate, whereas he had multiple investments with Manulife and Empire Life. Accordingly, the names of those companies had been reflected on the Permanent Record, whereas it was not necessary to identify Allstate. Acknowledging that his letter of 28 January 2016 to Mr. Gentile may have conveyed the impression that the $75,000 step rate GIC was with Manulife, Mr. Stover said that Mr. Gentile had nevertheless understood that it was a step rate GIC and knew what the return on the GIC was for the purpose of calculating the interest income for tax purposes.

[50] Mr. Voight agreed that there was no indication or suspicion, between November 2014 and the end of 2021, that the $75,000 had not been invested. Following the 2021 year end, Mr. Voight said that he was asked by his accountant if he had received any statements relating to the Mohave investment. When Mr. Voight said that he had not, Mr. Gentile said he would follow up with Mr. Stover. Mr. Voight said that he never got an explanation, either from Mr. Stover directly, or through Mr. Gentile. He did, however, receive a letter from Canada Life saying that Mr. Stover was no longer accredited by Canada Life and that if he had invested anything with Mohave, it was fraudulent. Mr. Voight took the letter to Mr. Stover’s house and confronted him about it. Mr. Stover told him that everything was good and not to worry about it; he said he got the information from Manulife for this Mohave investment. Mr. Voight claims that at no time did Mr. Stover mention that his money was invested in Allstate.

[51] In February 2022, Mr. Stover says that he made efforts to withdraw the monies which had been invested with Allstate. He produced a series of documents, very similar in their appearance to the Allstate documents already mentioned (which had been dated 25 November 2014). The first of this series of further Allstate documents is dated 4 February 2022. As with the previous documents, there is an Allstate Financial Service logo and an address of 700 Silver Seven Road, Ottawa. The narrative in the document seems to suggest that it involves a loan. It reads “Borrowing is always an option taken, yet for some, it may make life more complicated than easy”. It goes on to state: “Based on the information you have provided we have to process & approve your request of $15,000.00 CAD”.

[52] Mr. Stover explained that this document was evidence of a withdrawal of part of Mr. Voight’s investment. He added that it had been necessary to make a payment of $1,450 in order to obtain the commitment by Allstate to allow the withdrawal of $15,000. Mr. Stover paid this amount from his own bank account. There were subsequent confirmations of withdrawals of $25,000 (on 4 or 5 February 2022), $25,000 (on 8 February 2022) and $30,000 (on 8 February 2022). In order to secure a commitment from Allstate for the release of these funds, Mr. Stover said he had to make further payments from his own resources of $1,450 and $1,100.

[53] Mr. Stover also produced a series of screenshots of text messages between him and Paul Barron, and between Mr. Stover and Mr. Barron’s supervisor, “Tina”. These text messages suggest that Mr. Stover was repeatedly asking where the funds were. Mr. Stover is asked to e-transfer funds to two separate Gmail accounts which, he says, he did. As the month of February 2022 goes on, no release of funds materialises. The text message exchanges end on 28 February 2022. After that, the telephone lines associated with Allstate Financial Service were, according to Mr. Stover, disconnected. Allstate, Paul Barron and Tina all disappeared without a trace.

[54] Mr. Voight received a text message from Mr. Stover on 21 May – the screenshot of this text message does not include the year, but the screenshot displays “sat, may 21” which would suggest that the year was 2022 – which said:

Shawn I’m sorry for this mess. I am assuring you payment in fill [sic] so that you will not have lost any money and you can continue moving forward. If that’s ok I will be putting the money together to get it back to you and I apologize for the confusion and any upset caused to you

[55] This text was the last communication that Mr. Voight had with Mr. Stover. After that, the matter was placed in the hands of the police.

[56] After Mr. Voight filed his complaint with the police, the file was assigned to Detective Constable Dan Silver of the Kingston Police Force.

[57] DC Silver said that after being contacted by Mr. Voight and his wife and obtaining information from them about the investment that was the subject of their complaint, he would normally have reached out to Mr. Stover. However, Mr. Stover had already found out that DC Silver was involved, and it was he who initiated contact.

[58] DC Silver obtained a profile report from the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services which confirmed that Mohave Sierra Holdings Ltd. had been incorporated on 10 May 2000 and that at all times thereafter, Mr. Stover had been its sole director.

[59] DC Silver also obtained a production order for account records held by Toronto Dominion Bank for Mohave Sierra Holdings Ltd. and Martin Stover. Because the bank only held records going back seven years, it was not possible to get transaction information related to activity on these accounts in 2014.

[60] The first date that Mr. Stover reached out to DC Silver was on 30 May when he sent him an email with what was represented as his report to the OPP attached. Then on 6 June 2022 he left a voicemail for D.C. Silver. He indicated that he was trying to get the money back for Mr. Voight. DC Silver wanted Mr. Stover to come to the police station. However, there was always an excuse given by Mr. Stover for not meeting. But Mr. Stover did drop off the Allstate Financial Service documents for DC Silver. They also corresponded by email.

[61] Mr. Stover was unable to produce original documents from Allstate. Inquiries made by DC Silver through the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre yielded information that there were a series of scams in 2022 involving Allstate Financial Service and Paul Barron.

[62] Mr. Stover told DC Silver that he had filed complaints about Allstate Financial Service with the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ottawa Police. He produced copies of what he described as reports that he had filed with the Ottawa Police on 25 May 2022 and the OPP on 27 May 2022. However, when DC Silver contacted the OPP, he was advised that what Mr. Stover had provided him with was a confirmation notice relating to an online report that Mr. Stover may have attempted to make, but that no report had, in fact, been filed. Similar information was provided by the Ottawa Police.

[63] DC Silver said that he believed that Mr. Stover may well have been the victim of a scam in 2022, but that he was satisfied that Mr Stover had not been scammed in 2014. Furthermore, there was no evidence that at any time before 2022 had Mr. Stover tried to get Mr. Voight’s money released.

[64] Part of DC Silver’s investigation was aimed at an understanding of the relationship between Mohave and Allstate, and how the cheque made payable to Mohave had been credited to Allstate. In response to a question by DC Silver asking how the money had been provided to Allstate (given that the cheque had been made payable to Mohave Holdings Ltd.), Mr. Stover responded, “Allstate took the deposit from the holding company as directed by them”.

[65] On behalf of Mr. Stover, it was submitted that the “holding company” referred to by Mr. Stover was not Mohave, but, rather, was an Allstate holding company.

[66] When Mr. Stover was asked what was meant by the “holding company”, his answer was “the holding company was the company that’s on the cheque”, agreeing with Crown counsel’s follow up question, “which is Mohave?”

[67] Further on in the email exchange, the following questions and answers (which I have rearranged for the sake of presentation) were posed by DC Silver and answered by Mr. Stover:

1. Q. What did you do with the $75,000 cheque made out to Mohave Holdings?
   A. i was advised by phone to deposit cheque to Hold Co, on cheque and they advised they would take care of the deposit to Allstate from there, which was confirmed by their paper confirmation and signed by their chief financial officer.

2. Q. Why was the cheque made out to Mohave instead of Allstate?
   A. As i also mentioned prior, Allstate reminds me and operates like the mutual fund world. They deposit to a hold co first and then move monies to parent co or Allstate from that point. You would have to ask them why their process is in this format. I am only an outside broker/advisor. I have no influence on their internal processes of their business operations. As well their disbursement of approved withdrawals whenever completed, so we don’t know where or who was going to send the withdrawals, other than Allstate.

3. Q. Why is there no mention of Mohave on any of the documents you sent me?
   A. You would have to find out from Allstate.

4. Q. What is Mohave Holdings?
   A. Common sense tells me its [sic] a hold co.

[68] The foregoing exchange generated a follow up question from DC Silver (to which, of course, he already knew the answer as a result of having obtained the profile report), “So Allstate owns Mohave?” Mr. Stover’s answer was, “…as indicated prior, I have no idea of any holdings of Allstate nor of Allstate’s ownership other than Paul Morgan who they identified as a co-founder in their correspondence”.

Analysis and Findings

[69] The $150,000 which the Whiteheads say they gave to Mr. Stover to invest for them, and the $75,000 from Mr. Voight’s numbered company, have never been returned. Mr. Stover’s former clients deny having received any sort of printouts or statements relating to these investments. Mr. Stover has been unable to provide any records or other corroboration of these investments, other than the Allstate documents which I have made reference to, and his self-generated “Permanent Record” documents.

[70] On behalf of Mr. Stover, it was argued that I should treat the evidence given by the Whiteheads with caution, given that they have been unable to produce any of the statements that they said they have received from Empire Life. Without a properly documented history of the Whiteheads’ investment dealings, Mr. Stover submits that it cannot be concluded that the Whiteheads gave him $150,000, as they claim.

[71] I do not accept Mr. Stover’s evidence that he never received $150,000 from the Whiteheads. The absence of documents from Empire Life does not mean that I should disbelieve the Whiteheads when they say that they gave Mr. Stover $150,000 as a separate investment to the $300,000, which everyone agrees that they invested. The Whiteheads had just sold their house. To them, the sum of $150,000 was a significant amount. They would not, as Mr. Stover suggested, be mistaken about having sent him this sum.

[72] Although the Whiteheads were unable to produce a copy of the bank draft, payable to Cheryl Whitehead which she says she signed over to Mr. Stover (or, perhaps, Mohave), the subsequent references in the Permanent Record provided to the Whiteheads, and the communication from Empire Life which was annotated by Mr. Stover to incorporate reference to the GIC, reinforce my conclusion that Mr. Stover was, in fact, provided with $150,000 by the Whiteheads. The customer receipt from Scotiabank dated 30 June 2015, which confirms that a bank draft payable to Cheryl Whitehead was obtained that day, is also consistent with the conclusion that the Whiteheads obtained a draft for $150,000 and turned it over to Mr. Stover. Furthermore, Mr. Stover has offered no credible explanation for the funding of the GIC referenced in his annotation of 28 September 2019 or the 20 September 2019 Permanent Record.

[73] To conclude on the charges involving the Whiteheads, I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Stover received $150,000 from them and that he has neither accounted for the money, nor returned it. He has deprived the Whiteheads of their money by fraudulent means, inducing them to believe that they were making an investment that would provide a better rate of return than the more traditional investments they had been involved in with companies like Empire Life, and then failing to either account for the money that he took or return it.

[74] Turning to Mr. Voight, it is not disputed that Mr. Voight gave Mr. Stover $75,000 in November 2014. Nor is it disputed that the money has never been returned. Mr. Stover’s defence is that the company that he invested the money in – Allstate Financial Service – was a fraudulent scheme, and that both he and Mr. Voight are the victims of that scheme.

[75] I do not accept Mr. Stover’s evidence that Mr. Voight completed an application to Allstate and signed it in November 2014. His explanation that he retained the application page, the receipt, and a third Allstate document which refers to a loan, but not any other terms or conditions, as evidence of that investment, is implausible. Rather, I accept Mr. Voight’s evidence that he had never heard of Allstate Financial Service, let alone signed an application to invest in that company, until he was presented with Allstate Financial Service documentation at trial. Both Mr. Voight and his accountant, Mr. Gentile, consistently referred to the Mohave Holdings investment in their correspondence with Mr. Stover.

[76] If, in fact, Mr. Stover had invested Mr. Voight’s money with Allstate, it would have been readily apparent by, if not well before, February 2022 that all was not well. With documentation which, again, seems far more likely to reflect a loan than an investment, by February Mr. Stover was sending e-transfers to what appear to have been individuals’ Gmail accounts in order to secure the release of funds, which never arrived. This went on over a number of days. Mr. Stover sent three payments. He received nothing back. And then, for the next three weeks, he attempted, seemingly increasingly more desperately, to chase payment.

[77] Notwithstanding this, Mr. Stover did not bring the attention of the police or any financial services regulator to the fraud, that he says he has been a victim of, until the end of May 2022. Even then, he did not file proper reports. Then, as evidenced by his email exchanges with DC Silver, he obstructed and evaded DC Silver’s attempts to get to the bottom of what had happened with Mr. Voight’s investment. The exchange concerning Mohave Holdings is perhaps the best example of this. When asked the straightforward question, “What is Mohave Holdings?”, instead of providing a straightforward answer – namely, that Mohave Holdings was his own holding company – Mr. Stover responded that “common sense tells me it’s a hold co”. I conclude that such an answer was not only deliberately evasive, but intended to obstruct the police investigation. And, knowing that Allstate had disappeared into the ether, when asked why there was no mention of Mohave on any of the documents that Mr. Stover had provided to DC Silver, Mr. Stover responded that “you would have to find out from Allstate”.

[78] There are many other aspects of Mr. Stover’s evidence that beggar belief.

[79] Mr. Stover’s references in his correspondence with DC Silver to a “holding company” as well as his testimony at trial, were clearly indicative of Mr. Stover’s holding company, rather than some mythical holding company in the Allstate universe. Furthermore, I do not accept Mr. Stover’s explanation of how a cheque made payable to Mohave Holdings, and deposited at the TD Bank in Kingston could, without further intervention, in the form of an endorsement or some other direction, have found its way into an Allstate account in Ottawa.

[80] Perhaps the most blatant example of Mr. Stover’s willingness to deceive is his email of 24 April 2022 to Mr. Gentile. By that point, even though he knew that the money was gone, and that Allstate had disappeared, Mr. Stover was telling Mr. Gentile that Mr. Voight’s investment had matured in November 2021, been renewed at 3.5% until November 2022, and then 3.75% for the following year, and 4% for the remaining three years until 2026.

[81] Even if Mr. Stover was, himself, the victim of some sort of deception in February 2022 (something which I would not accept), I am entirely satisfied that Mr. Voight was deceived as to what was being done with the $75,000 investment that he thought he had made in November 2014. Where that money went is not known, other than that a cheque payable to Mr. Stover’s holding company appears to have been presented for payment at the TD Bank on the same day that the cheque was written.

[82] Simply put, Mr. Stover took Mr. Voight’s money. He has never returned it. Mr. Voight was deceived.

[83] The offence of theft, as defined in s. 322 of the Criminal Code, requires the taking of property – including money – fraudulently and without colour of right, with intent to deprive, temporarily or absolutely, the owner of the property. Having found that Mr. Stover received $150,000 from the Whiteheads, and in the absence of any explanation for what happened to it, the only conclusion I can reasonably draw is that Mr. Stover intended to, and has, permanently deprived them of that money.

[84] Mr. Stover did not tell the Whiteheads where their $150,000 was going to be invested. He did, though, tell them they would enjoy a better than usual rate of return on their investment, and it was in order to separate their more conventional investment with Empire Life that a second bank draft, for the $150,000 investment, was provided. This deception, further perpetuated by Mr. Stover’s representations to Harry Whitehead concerning the current value of his supposed investment in 2019, is clearly indicative of the elements of deceit and other fraudulent means necessary to support a conviction on both the counts of theft of fraud.

[85] In the case of Mr. Voight, it is possible that Mr. Stover invested the money with Allstate, and that he expected to obtain a return. I make no finding in that regard. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Mr. Stover fraudulently took Mr. Voight’s investment (an element of the offence of theft as well as fraud) by not disclosing the true nature of the investment and thereafter, as a result, and never having returned the money, depriving, temporarily or absolutely, Mr. Voight of his property. Accordingly, I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Stover intended to absolutely deprive Mr. Voight of that $75,000 and, furthermore that he defrauded Mr. Voight, by deceitfully failing to disclose to him the nature of the investment of his $75,000.

[86] I am also satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Stover’s interactions with Detective Constable Silver were aimed at distracting or deceiving DC Silver as he tried to determine what had happened to Mr. Voight’s investment. Having initiated contact with DC Silver, rather than the other way round, Mr. Stover then strung DC Silver along for over a month, as evidenced by a string of email communications, which were replete with half truths and evasion.

[87] The evidence amply supports a conclusion that the Crown has met its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt all of the offences charged on the indictment. Accordingly, there will be findings of guilt on the two charges of fraud and on the obstruct justice charge. However, applying the principle in Kienapple v. R., [1975] 1 S.C.R. 729, the two theft charges will be stayed.

Graeme Mew

Delivered (orally and in writing): 11 March 2025