An Alberta man has been convicted of fraud and forgery in a sequence of elaborate sports activities funding schemes that value his victims greater than $1.7 million.
Nickolas Ellis was discovered responsible on Jan. 17 in Edmonton Court of King’s Bench on eight counts of fraud over $5,000, three counts of use or trafficking in a solid doc and three counts of identification fraud.
The case particulars how Ellis, 52, engineered a sequence of elaborate frauds, typically utilizing his purported connections to present and retired NHL gamers to each entice and placate buyers.
Ellis used pretend emails, fabricated conferences, solid paperwork and “fictional characters” to lend legitimacy to his tasks — defrauding eight associates, coworkers and neighbours.
Ellis’s crimes occurred between February 2016 and March 2019.
The funding alternatives offered by Mr. Ellis had been a home of playing cards constructed on a basis of deception.– Justice John Henderson
“The funding alternatives offered by Mr. Ellis had been a home of playing cards constructed on a basis of deception,” wrote Justice John Henderson.
“None of the funding alternatives had been actual and all had been designed to generate substantial funds for Mr. Ellis on the expense of the buyers.”
The decide decided Ellis’s tasks had been a fiction and the cash gained from the schemes was by no means invested in something aside from his private funds.
Ellis used a sequence of ruses on his buyers, together with impersonating late New York Islanders legend Mike Bossy — and fabricating correspondence from legal professionals the court docket decided didn’t exist.
Ellis was initially charged on a 17-count amended indictment. He pleaded not responsible final October and has denied knowingly collaborating in any fraudulent exercise.
Derek Anderson, Ellis’s lawyer, mentioned he was reviewing the choice with an “eye in direction of enchantment” however mentioned his consumer declined additional remark. Ellis is due again in court docket for arraignment on Feb. 3.
Some of his victims met Ellis after he moved right into a neighbourhood close to a golf course south of Sherwood Park round 2015. Others knew him for a comparatively brief time, in some instances solely months, earlier than investing with Ellis.
The decide described Ellis as an clever, well-educated man with a historical past in mergers and acquisitions who was “extremely regarded” by these he labored with.
The largest of Ellis’s schemes was known as the Dynasty Project. Three buyers collectively misplaced near $1.2 million.
The undertaking provided buyers a chance to amass an curiosity within the undertaking, one Ellis claimed concerned NHL personalities, together with Bossy.
According to Ellis’s testimony, the undertaking started with a proposal, from a “buddy of a buddy,” to satisfy a software program developer named Dean who was in search of seed cash to develop app know-how
Ellis mentioned he was advised the app would talk with athletes earlier than and after video games, and relay info to subscribers by way of varied dwell chats and streams.
‘Fictional individuals’
The pitch included a partnership with sports activities leagues and buyers had been promised hundreds of thousands or billions of {dollars} in returns on the closing of the sale to Microsoft.
Ellis testified that he by no means discovered Dean’s final title – and by no means met him once more – however that he was quickly contacted by Tom and Frank Tiebert, legal professionals for Dynasty.
Emails claiming to be from the Tieberts inspired buyers to funnel more cash into the undertaking.
The decide nevertheless decided the Tieberts had been “fictional individuals” Ellis used as props.
Ellis arrange a pretend e mail account in Bossy’s title so as to add legitimacy to the scheme.
He additionally despatched an e mail with a solid authorized letter connected purporting to be from an Edmonton regulation agency, informing buyers that the agency held hundreds of thousands in belief for the undertaking.
But the undertaking by no means existed. The cash was not held in belief. And Ellis’s story of the assembly with the developer had “no ring of reality,” the decide discovered.
The Dynasty Project was a sham. It was not actual. It existed solely within the thoughts of Mr. Ellis.– Justice John Henderson
“I conclude that the Dynasty Project was a sham. It was not actual,” Henderson wrote.
“It existed solely within the thoughts of Mr. Ellis.”
While Ellis was defrauding the Dynasty buyers, he was touting one other scheme.
Dubbed the Gretzky Project, it promised a “enormous alternative” with distributor Upper Deck, a relationship that didn’t exist.
The licensing association could be for 9 new collections of limited-issue Gretzky merchandise.
Ellis took a further $38,000 from one of many Dynasty buyers, cash Ellis would deposit straight into his private accounts.
In March 2019, the Dynasty buyers reported Ellis to police and the fraud investigation started, court docket heard.
False connections
The second largest funding scheme, generally known as the Reebok Jersey Program, defrauded six buyers of greater than $319,000.
The undertaking aimed to reap the benefits of the NHL’s change from Reebok-branded jerseys to Adidas ones in the course of the 2017 season.
Ellis advised buyers that due to his contacts with the NHL and U.S. based mostly distributors, he had a chance to buy a listing of greater than 1,000 jerseys.
The plan was to get them signed and repackaged and bought for revenue.
Ellis testified the undertaking started when he was approached by a person named Jack that he knew by way of the “gathering world.”
Ellis advised buyers that the majority of the jerseys had been pre-sold, main them to imagine the danger of the undertaking was minimal. Again, he claimed to be in enterprise with Upper Deck, which he was not.
He solid emails from an Edmonton framing firm that reported that lots of of jerseys had been being packaged on the market, court docket heard. Another e mail reported that signed images had been collected for the undertaking at Connor McDavid’s twenty first birthday celebration in Las Vegas.
As with the Dynasty undertaking, Ellis bought the identical curiosity within the undertaking to totally different units of buyers.
“The Reebok Jersey Program was by no means actual, however as an alternative was a sham,” Henderson wrote.
“Ellis used a sequence of elaborate methods designed to make it seem to the buyers that the undertaking was actual and worthy of funding
The Bridge Financing Project, which started in November 2017, claimed to contain the financing of economic buildings which had reached the ultimate building stage however had not but been bought.
Ellis claimed former NHL coach and participant Kevin Lowe and hockey government and former participant, Craig McTavish, had already signed on as companions. They had not.
Nine companions had been alleged to share the price of the financing equally. Instead one man transferred Ellis $40,250 and misplaced all of it.
Ellis additionally provided one among his jersey program buyers a chance to put money into the acquisition within the window and door substitute enterprise the place he labored as normal supervisor after which was promoted to chief working officer. The man invested $49,475. But this too was a fiction, the decide discovered.
The firm was by no means on the market, the corporate that Ellis claimed was aiming to buy it didn’t exist as a company entity and Ellis didn’t have the means to award anybody shares within the operation.
“He denies any dishonesty or fraud,” Henderson wrote. “I don’t imagine Mr. Ellis.”
