Workers testify cop attempted to sell dead man’s watch

A Toronto cop accused of stealing credit cards and a luxury Swiss watch from dead people later attempted to sell a matching TAG Heuer to two construction workers, the men testified Tuesday.

Each man told a Toronto court they had bought other goods from Const. Boris Borissov, including a Richard Mille watch and cigars — one testified he had even asked the officer to get him a dose of Cuban cancer “vaccine.”

That, they said, was before he sent them each an offer to buy the Swiss watch.

“I have this one for sale as well. Brand new, original one, no box. I am asking for $9,000,” reads a text message prosecutor Samuel Walker said Borissov sent one of the men, along with an online listing for a TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco Historique watch.

The same model, Walker said, that Borissov allegedly stole from the home of a dead Toronto man whose disappearance he was investigating.

The Crown says Borissov stole the luxury watch and two credit cards from two separate individuals while assigned to investigate the circumstances around their deaths. He’s also accused of using a stolen car for three months and misusing police databases.

Borissov pleaded not guilty to charges of theft, fraud or breach of trust by an official, obstruction of justice, possession of property obtained by crime exceeding $5,000, and fraudulently obtaining a computer service.

Borissov, who had been a 16-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service at the time of his arrest, has been suspended with pay since February 2022.

Bekir Ozdemir, owner of a Mississauga construction company, said that he met Borissov in 2017 after hearing Borissov could sell him a Cuban vaccine he was seeking for his father-in-law, who had lung cancer.

After Borissov delivered the vaccine, Ozdemir says he continued to buy cigars from the police officer.

The last time Ozdemir bought cigars from Borissov, on March 10, 2022, he said the officer asked if he wanted to buy watches. Later, Borissov sent him a link to a listing for a TAG Heuer for sale on the luxury watch website.

“He just sent me the link, I wasn’t interested, and I left it at that,” Ozdemir said.

Construction worker Jon Mateus described a similar exchange. He met Borissov on March 6, 2022, to purchase a Richard Mille replica watch from a Facebook Marketplace listing, when he said Borissov offered him other watches he had for sale.

Mateus asked him to send photos of other watches; Borissov sent him the online listing for the TAG Heuer, which valued the watch at $13,571.

He said he was selling it used for $9,000 — “It was just too expensive for me,” Mateus said.

Photos taken by police at the apartment of a man who died by suicide, whose disappearance and death Borissov was tasked with investigating, show an empty box for a TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, found alongside the dead man’s watch collection. The investigation into the man’s disappearance began on Feb. 18, 2022 — weeks before Borissov is alleged to have tried to sell the watch to the construction workers.

In his opening address before Ontario Court Judge Mary Misener, Walker said that Borissov “used his position and powers as a police officer to commit several serious criminal offences.”

The trial continues on Tuesday.