Niagara-on-the-Lake financier faces new charges

Niagara Regional Police have laid new charges against a Niagara-on-the-Lake financier already facing fraud charges in multiple jurisdictions connected to business loan schemes.

Peter Corbière, 63, was charged on May 4 with fraud over $5,000 and making false pretences following an investigation that started in October 2019, said a Tuesday news release from the NRP.

The release provided scant details about the nature of the investigation other than to say it involved a “suspicious failed business arrangement.”

Corbière was released from custody and is scheduled to appear in court May 27, police said.

The charges are the latest faced by Corbière, formerly a senior partner in the Business Development Bank of Canada and owner of the now-defunct CorbièreMcBride Associates.

He was arrested by Ontario Provincial Police in April in connection to a separate fraud investigation into a 2016 business loan scheme in Huron County.

That investigation found a man paid a “lender’s fee” of $38,000 for a business loan worth more than $1 million, but never received the loan and didn’t get his money back.

Corbière faces charges of fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and making a false statement in writing in connection to that investigation.

In February, NRP charged Corbière with fraud over $5,000 and making false pretence following a three-year investigation into what police said was a 2017 “proposed business transaction” worth $14,000.

He has yet to appear in court for trial on any of the previous charges.

In March 2018, Corbière made national headlines when the CBC published an expose about a dozen entrepreneurs who paid a Niagara financier tens of thousands of dollars in fees with the promise of business loans. In each case, however, the loans did not materialize, despite repeated promises the cash was on its way.

The CBC story identified Corbière as the financier.

The St. Catharines Standard has spoken to some of the same entrepreneurs, who told the same tale of paying fees for loans they never received. In some cases, this resulted in the collapse of businesses.

For several years, Corbière was a wellknown figure in the Niagara business community, sometimes giving talks at local entrepreneurial events.

In 2013, he and Corbière-McBride Associates made local news for funding a Niagara addiction awareness program’s provincial tour.