13. On May 26, 2000, the day after the Bank had confirmed the $143,000.00 deposit to the Member's trust account, Frank Guglielmello contacted the Bank and informed them that the cheque which Mr. Vucicevich had deposited was fraudulent.
Apparently, Gino Guglielmello had kept a cheque which Frank had written to him in the amount of $51.00, and used it to create a phony cheque, which Gino gave to Mr. Vucicevich as payment for the machine. The Bank immediately reversed the deposit, causing a trust shortage in the amount of $102,000.00 to occur in the Member's account.
If brother Frank hadn't called the bank it's likely that the other owner of the company would have. How did brother Frank know that the check had been altered unless he saw the bank statement or the actual check.
Frank must have cross-referenced the check number on the $51.00 check he gave to brother Gino with the fraudulent check for $143,000 and gasped.
I cannot understand why the Toronto police fraud squad did not pursue the matter.
the G&G Fab Inc, owned by two brothers, Frank and Gino Guglielmello, and a third party.
Vucicevich obviously had several creditors after him -
7. In and around May of 2000, Peter Vucicevich, an ongoing client, retained the Member to negotiate with his various creditors. At that time, the Member had a trust account with the HSBC Bank in Windsor. Mr. Vucicevich told the Member he had a valuable piece of machinery he was trying to sell, and that he would deposit the proceeds to her trust account when the sale was made. The Member, in turn, would use the proceeds to settle any outstanding claims by creditors.
8. On or about May 5, 2000, Mr. Vucicevich informed the Member he would be depositing $150,000.00 to her trust account. On the strength of this information, $15,000.00 was transferred from trust in payment of the Member's fees, and approximately $30,000.00 was transferred in trust funds were paid to Mr. Vucicevich's creditors [sic]. However, the $150,000.00 deposit was not made at that time. A conduct application (CN05/03) was issued in relation to these transfers. The Member raised the defence that the funds were transferred without the Member's instructions, and that the transfers were only discovered by her several weeks later. This defence was investigated by the Law Society, and in light of the Law Society's investigation, authorization to withdraw CN05/03 was successfully sought from PAC, and the conduct application was subsequently abandoned.
9. On May 25, 2000, Mr. Vucicevich told the Member that he had just sold a piece of machinery to a company called G&G Fab Inc, owned by two brothers, Frank and Gino Guglielmello, and a third party. The transaction took place in Toronto.
10. Mr. Vucicevich told the Member he had received a cheque in the amount of $143,800.00 as payment for the machine and that he had deposited it into the Member's trust account, via an HSBC Bank branch in Toronto. As G& G Fab. Inc., had their account at the same branch, the Bank was able to clear the cheque immediately, and informed Mr. Vucicevich accordingly. |
