A Calgary man who bilked his clients out of millions of dollars in a massive Ponzi scheme has been handed a 10-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay $3.1 million in restitution.
Arnold Breitkreutz, 74, was found guilty of fraud over $5,000 by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby, following a trial that took place in June.
In sentencing Breitkreutz, Feasby described the “deliberate, large scale” fraud that “profoundly” affected the lives of the victims, some of them retirees.
The judge noted common themes of anxiety, depression and a “profound sense of betrayal” suffered by the defrauded investors, many of whom lost everything to a man they’d come to trust.
Although Breitkreutz’s company Base Financial began operating in the late 1980s and took investors’ money for more than 30 years, the time period considered by the courts was over 16 months, from May 2014 to September 2015.
Investment losses in Base Finance totalled more than $100 million, but much of that falls outside the offence dates.
Still, there were more than 100 investors who lost around $21 million in that offence period, the judge noted.
‘Risky oil play in Texas’
Investors in Base Finance believed their money was secured by mortgages on real estate in Alberta when in fact it was loaned to an oil and gas promoter and used in “a risky oil play in Texas and secured against oil and gas leases and equipment,” wrote Feasby in his conviction decision.
Earlier this week, prosecutor Shelley Smith asked the…
