Ex-provincial staffer won’t face fraud trial
Toronto cop will be tried over allegation senior’s will was forged
A former Ontario government employee no longer faces fraud charges tied to allegations that she and a Toronto police officer submitted a forged will that put $800,000 into his bank account, depriving the rightful heir of his inheritance.
After a preliminary hearing, Justice Enzo Rondinelli this week decided there was not enough evidence to order Adellene Balgobin, 34, to stand trial in Superior Court on fraud charges relating to the estate of Heinz Sommerfeld, who died in a Mississauga long-term-care home on June 19, 2017, at age 77.
While the discharge means Balgobin is essentially acquitted of two fraud charges, the Crown could still appeal. Balgobin also still faces a breach of trust charge that was not tested at a preliminary inquiry because of the nature of the offence.
At the time of Sommerfeld’s death, Balgobin was a senior client representative with the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee (OPGT). She had been in charge of his affairs while he was alive.
The OPGT is an Ontario government agency that manages the finances of more than 12,000 people who lack the mental capacity to do so themselves. The office also administers the estates of some Ontarians who die without a valid will and without next of kin living in the province.
The judge did find there was enough evidence that Toronto police Const. Robert Konashewych, 38, can face trial on charges of fraud.
After Sommerfeld’s death, Konashewych came forward with a document purporting to be Sommerfeld’s last will and testament, naming the officer as the sole beneficiary and executor of the estate.
The allegations against Konashewych have not been proven. In an email to the Star, his lawyer Peter Brauti said his client “denies the allegations and the matter will be proceeding to a trial.”
The Star cannot report the details of Konashewych’s preliminary hearing due to a routine publication ban.
The Toronto Police Service and prosecutors allege the will isn’t legitimate and that Sommerfeld died “intestate,” which means he left no instructions on how his property was to be divided. When that happens, Ontario’s Succession Law Reform Act spells out how the estate is distributed.
Because Sommerfeld had no surviving parents — nor any children — police and the Crown say whatever funds he left behind should have gone to a half-brother, Peter Stelter, who lives in central Ontario’s cottage country.
Stelter, who is in his mid-70s, did not respond to a request for comment, but previously he and his wife told the Star the matter was unsettling. He and Sommerfeld, who worked for the Ontario transportation department, had the same mother; as of last fall, he had not collected any money from the estate.
Leading up to Sommerfeld’s death, Balgobin had been romantically involved with Konashewych for several years while he was in a common-law relationship with another woman. Konashewych, 38, who remains on paid suspension from Toronto police, is also charged with attempting to obstruct justice.
The Ministry of the Attorney General, which oversees the OPGT, has called what happened over the Sommerfeld estate an “isolated incident.”
However, a 2018 auditor general report found the OPGT wasn’t living up to its mandate to protect the financial interests of the mentally incapable adults under its guardianship.
The auditors concluded “a risk exists that clients’ assets could be lost or misappropriated because of weak internal controls.”
Nor did the OPGT have “effective internal controls” to distribute assets to heirs.
The OPGT has 289 outstanding estate files at least 10 years since the date of death or older, worth $30 million.
The 2018 audit also found staff lacked training to detect fraudulent documents presented by those purporting to be an estate’s heir.
“The potential exists that individuals with criminal backgrounds could attempt to misappropriate client funds,” the auditor’s report states.
In response to Star queries, Ministry of Attorney General spokesman Brian Gray wrote in an email that the OPGT has implemented the auditor general’s recommended training to staff for the prevention of payouts to estates using fraudulent identification.
Lawyer Suzana Popovic-Montag, who has nothing to do with the case, says while it’s important to hold the OPGT accountable, she finds it hard to be overly critical of the office.
“The reality is this could have happened to any lawyer,” says Popovic-Montag, managing partner with a Toronto estate litigation firm. “When someone comes in our office with a will and says, ‘Hey, I’m the named executor, I want to administrate this estate and I want to apply for probate, help me,’ we do,” she says.
“That office is busy, like any government office they’re short-staffed and there’s just no real way to protect against all possible loss and misappropriation. Like anyone else, they’re balancing volume with efficiencies.”
As for issuing a cheque for more than $800,000 for an allegedly bogus will, PopvicMontag adds: “but for the grace of God go many lawyers.”
Balgobin’s lawyer, Julianna Greenspan, did not respond to a request for comment.