Final guilty plea entered by Concrete Equities executive a decade after 1,200 investors defrauded
Meghan Grant | CBC News | Posted: October 26, 2017 9:24 PM | Last Updated: October 26, 2017
Dave Humeniuk pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 and will be sentenced at a later date
More than a decade after he began defrauding investors out of tens of millions of dollars, Concrete Equities executive Dave Humeniuk has pleaded guilty.
Humeniuk entered the plea in a Calgary courtroom on Thursday to a charge of fraud over $5,000. Humeniuk's scam victimized about 1,200 investors who lost more than $20 million.
Humeniuk was supposed to go to trial next month but his lawyer, Cory Wilson, and prosecutor Steven Johnston worked out a plea deal. Charges of money laundering and theft will be withdrawn by the prosecutor at Humenuik's sentencing hearing.
Last year, Varun Aurora pleaded guilty to the same charge and received a two-year sentence, which he was allowed to serve in the community. Humeniuk will be sentenced at a later date.
From 2006 to 2009, Concrete Equities and associated businesses sold investors securities derived from a fund that invested in office buildings in Calgary and land deals in Mexico.
In 2011, the Alberta Securities Commission found Humeniuk, Aurora and two other former executives of Calgary-based company guilty of breaking provincial securities laws and misleading investors.
The men were involved in a real estate project called El Golfo that deceived investors with "exaggerated and untrue statements," according to an agreed statement of facts read aloud at Aurora's guilty plea.
Investors were promised returns of more than 500 per cent if they purchased a stake in the undeveloped beach property in Mexico, according to RCMP.
A date for Humeniuk's sentencing will be set next month, when 98 victim impact statements are expected to be filed.