As much as I resist returning to tell “THE REST OF THE STORY,” I realize I must let it all go to start over. We did meet with lawyers on three occasions and have worked with Edmonton Police to stop Richard from scamming other Canadians.  Both lawyers and the police (who say they have Richard in custody and that he is being returned to South Korea to face charges there) say that the money is likely all gone. Holding him accountable or getting our money returned would be very time consuming and expensive, even if possible.

We can not go back and magically make it all better. Richard has tried several times to contact me and give him a chance to present his plan for getting all our money back. I agreed to meet him at the public library in Edmonton in January, but he would not show up when he found out I was bringing Fanny (my wife, who had rights to half the money). Fanny and I wanted to know exactly what happened to our cash investment of $665,000 (plus profits of over $500,000 profits as shown by Richard’s monthly reports to us), and he will say nothing.

My guess now is that Richard never did invest any of his own money and had used our cash investment to buy us expensive gifts, pay all expenses for a costly wedding in Edmonton (June 2021), have his mother and two other South Korean come to Canada to continue the scam, and cover costs of a daughter being born a few months after the wedding. It appears his mother does not realize what her son was doing in Canada, or it is even a more sinister scam than we could envision. 

The second investment of $515,000 was in a trading program involving cryptocurrencies, and no profits from this account were ever dispersed. All trading was done through firms and banks in South Korea, and profits were in US dollars (if they even existed).

There is always the other side of the story, but I don’t believe we will ever hear it. In the final installment, I will write about the results of separating from Fanny on Feb. 03, 2023. In another year or two, I hope to calm down enough to consider publishing a complete account of the scam from beginning to end and how it affected all involved. In the mean time – BEWARE,  and ALWAYS HAVE 30% OF YOUR ASSETS IN YOUR OWN HANDS.

i