Ontario investors say they’ve lost millions following the abrupt closure of a Kitchener company. CBC News has uncovered that the man behind it is not only a savvy salesman but has a lengthy criminal record.At the office or out on the town, his extra-large frame was always draped in a new suit and a designer shirt. Outfits accessorized with thick gold chains, diamond rings and luxury watches from the likes of Rolex and Patek Philippe.
If you search his name on the internet, almost nothing comes up, and all of his social media posts have recently been deleted. But CBC News has uncovered Villanueva’s lengthy criminal past — six separate fraud convictions, with jail sentences totalling 17 years. In Toronto, he was found guilty of running a fake law firm. In North Bay, he pretended to be a psychologist. There was a sham bid to buy a minor league baseball team in London, Ont. And, almost 20 years ago, another debt-laden factoring business in Halifax.“He actually promised me hope. Hope that he could do this,” Rose Takacs says, sitting at the dining room table in her Cambridge, Ont. home.
One single mother said she lost $30,000 — money borrowed from her father that had been earmarked for her children’s education. A young man who signed over a $10,000 settlement from an accident that left him with permanent injuries remembered how he delivered the cheque using his walker. A former police officer who loaned Villanueva $6,000 provided text messages in which the ex-con deflected requests for repayment with references to COVID-19 restrictions, banking problems and cancer treatments.
Villanueva disclosed that he had been to jail, says Kuhn, explaining that “it was a misunderstanding with his ex-wife — something to do with his kids.” “David told so many stories. After a while, I didn’t know what was true,” says Kuhn, recalling his former employee’s claims that he was suffering from a brain tumour.
In 2004, Villanueva was again convicted of fraud in connection with another paralegal firm that he and his new wife had set up in Amherst, N.S. He avoided jail time, and was sentenced instead to two years of house arrest, and three more years of parole. As part of his compensation, Villanueva offered McCormick a zero-interest mortgage on a condo. Then, when the deal failed to materialize, he vowed to take over McCormick’s rent payments.A few months later, in early summer 2006, Villanueva simply disappeared, leaving behind more than 40 employees owed weeks of wages, as well as a string of angry creditors.
Calling himself David Carter, and claiming to be a Miami-based lawyer, Villanueva set up a downtown law firm, advertising heavily in the local media. Carter-Herzog, as it was known, purported to be specialists in workers’ compensation and immigration matters, and took on dozens of clients, charging large retainers. Villanueva, who billed himself as “senior counsel,” hired two actual lawyers, and several support staff, to do the bulk of the work.
was self-published as an ebook in 2016. Billed as a “tongue-in-cheek look” at life behind bars, it also offers some insight into why Villanueva had defrauded so many people over the years. In February 2016, Villanueva was arrested after his boss at a catering company complained the former inmate was trying to get him to invest in a restaurant venture — a violation of his “no business deals” release condition. A subsequent hearing raised concerns about Villanueva’s tendency to lie to his parole officer.
Meanwhile in Kitchener-Waterloo, investors in Villanueva’s factoring business are asking why the current police investigation is taking so long. The first fraud complaints were lodged last winter, they say, and from the outside, progress seems fitful. Villanueva had recently upgraded to a Mercedes GLS, a luxury SUV worth more than $150,000. But he had fallen behind on his $6,000-a-month payments, and wasn’t responding to messages. So on April 3, Khan tapped into the car’s GPS tracking system, and watched with mounting apprehension as it headed towards a U.S. border crossing in Sarnia, Ont.
Khan says he called the officer looking into the fraud allegations, and told her about the items. Months have since gone by.