The good son

THE STRAITLACED BROTHER WAS THE ONE GUNNED DOWN ‘GODFATHER-STYLE’ IN TORONTO

Simon Giannini was known as the good son; lots of people said it, even Simon’s brother, François.

After the Giannini family moved from Lebanon and became Canadians, Simon blossomed into a successful Toronto real estate broker while François, known as Frank, moved to Bangkok and allegedly embedded himself in shady circles.

The polarity in lifestyles of the two brothers — just a year apart in age — is now part of a police probe after the shocking shooting death of Simon, 54, while he dined in a highend steak house in Toronto on Sept. 16.

“Frank always said his brother was a straitlaced guy,” said Phillip Bean, a former employee and former friend of Frank’s in Thailand. “It is weird he is the one who got murdered Godfather-style in a steak house. I always thought that would happen to Frank.”

Toronto Det. Shannon Dawson confirmed Simon’s connection to his brother “is part of our investigation,” adding, “we are looking at everything.”

Between news reports of a horrific 2010 crash that left a Thai woman dead with Frank accused of driving while impaired and unproven allegations of large-scale stock fraud, drug use and associations with unsavoury figures, Toronto police have plenty to look at.

Detectives are also pursuing other avenues in their search for a motive, but Simon’s clearest path to the underworld could be through his brother.

“There is nothing to indicate he was involved in anything suspicious,” Dawson said of Simon.

Frank hired Bean in 2014 to work in his Bangkok-based boiler room — a high-pressure telemarketing sales team that lied, bullied or sweet-talked people into selling good stock for way too little money, Bean alleges.

Attempts to contact Frank went unanswered.

Bean, 38, from Texas, moved to Asia and found work in stock sales in Bangkok before he met Frank.

It didn’t take Bean long, he said, to realize he was working in a boiler room. While at that first job he met Frank, who Bean said was once partners with the guy running the scheme but was no longer on good terms with him. When Bean’s boss heard he and Frank were friends, Bean was ordered not only to leave the company but also the country, Bean said.

“Two large, thuggish guys came in and took me to my hotel, they watched me pack my bags and were to escort me to the airport,” Bean said.

He said he called Frank, who told him he should run for it as soon as they took him out of the hotel. Frank would be in the parking lot and Bean was to jump onto the back of his motorbike, Bean said.

Once at Frank’s house, Bean was thrown into a debauched lifestyle of booze, drugs and girls, he said. He lived there with Frank and two other men who worked for him.

Frank offered Bean a job. Frank told him he was in the “acquisitions business,” Bean said. Frank said they bought stock from people who no longer wanted it and sold it at a profit. When Bean started work, Frank said he needed to make a copy of his passport; Bean claims Frank didn’t give it back.

“Right away, it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t high-pressure sales — it was lying. We lied to them with every breath we took. We lied about our names, where we were calling from, the company name, what the stock was worth. Everything,” Bean said.

Bean said Frank and his business partners were once bigwigs in the shady stock business. (Requests for comment from two alleged former business partners went unanswered.) Frank had several houses, a lovely Thai wife and young son. Frank’s lifestyle, however, ruined him, Bean said.

In 2010, news reports say Frank was involved in a devastating car crash that resulted in a Thai woman being killed and several other people being seriously injured. In a news video, a man identified as Frank is seen wandering about the scene looking dazed; police hold up Frank’s Canadian passport to the camera.

The outcome of the crash investigation is unknown. Requests for information from Thai police were unsuccessful.

Frank’s physical decline continued, Bean said. Frank was missing six or seven teeth, he became overweight, pale and frail, Bean said. He said Frank’s wife left him, and he rarely saw his son. Frank made bongs for smoking methamphetamine out of Gatorade bottles and interspersed his sales calls with drug hits, Bean said. He would frequent bars, meet young women, come home and eat KFC chicken.

Bean became increasingly uncomfortable with Frank and their work.

Bean said one sales call was his breaking point. When Frank transferred a client to Bean to close the deal, the man on the other end of the phone thanked him profusely for taking his stock; the client said he really needed the money and, if the stock became worthless, it would ruin him. Bean said he couldn’t go through with the deal.

Frank, however, recorded his salesmen’s calls. He was livid when he learned of it, Bean said.

According to Bean, Frank said he owed him the lost profit from the deal and wouldn’t let him leave until he paid it. Bean said he was scared. Frank’s employees had guns and were told to watch him, Bean said.

“I need my passport I just want it back,” Bean wrote in what appears to be email he sent to Frank in July 2014, seen by the National Post. “I wouldn’t go to the police they r not to be trussted I just want my passport. I can get some of what I owe u wired to me from my mom if youll save me the trouble of having to get a new passport.”

Bean contacted Andrew Drummond, a former British journalist who had been exposing boiler rooms in Thailand. Drummond told him he should call a cab and get out of there.

Together, Bean and Drummond said they went to the local police. Police raided Frank’s home and Frank was arrested for drugs allegedly found at the home, Bean and Drummond said.

The account could not be confirmed. It is unknown if charges were ever laid.

Hearing of Simon’s brazen shooting rekindled memories of his strange time with Frank, Bean said. Whenever Frank spoke of his brother, he sounded like he was jealous of him and his success, Bean said.

Bean has not had any contact with Frank since the police raid, he said. Bean spoke to Simon a couple of times while living at Frank’s home, when answering calls from Simon trying to reach his brother, Bean said.

Shortly after the raid, Bean said Simon reached out to him through Facebook.

“He sent me a message asking what had happened to his brother.”

Bean said he told Simon all about it, bluntly. Simon seemed unimpressed.

He then blocked Bean on Facebook.