Doug Ford sued by brother’s widow
Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford used money improperly siphoned from his late brother’s estate to prop up the failing family business, his sister-in-law Renata Ford alleges in a lawsuit filed days before the Ontario election.
Millions of dollars rightfully belonging to her and her children with Rob Ford are gone, she alleges.
Doug and a third brother, Randy, controlled the family’s Deco label-printing business and the estates of its founder, family patriarch Doug Sr., and Rob, and abused those positions for their own benefit, the lawsuit says.
Renata Ford has a substance-abuse problem and is making up stories to harm Doug Ford’s campaign, say statements the PCs issued in the names of the leader and his mother, Diane Ford.
“These claims relating to Deco are completely false and we will strongly refute them in court,” Doug Ford’s statement said. “Renata’s lawyers have been clear to us throughout this campaign, that either we hand over money, or they would go public with these false claims, and that is exactly what they have done, with three days to go until the election.”
“It is heartbreaking that Renata has chosen to bring forward these false and baseless allegations against our family, right in the middle of the provincial election campaign,” said the statement from Diane Ford. “Renata has serious struggles with addiction, and our hope is that she will accept help for the sake of herself and my grandchildren.”
A call to Randy Ford at Deco’s corporate office afterhours Monday wasn’t immediately returned.
The timing of the lawsuit couldn’t be more damaging. It strikes at the heart of Doug Ford’s pitch that he’s a successful businessman and a family man, alleging instead that he’s a calculating manipulator who made off with money that should have gone to his beloved brother’s wife and kids.
Renata Ford’s statement of claim, dated June 1 and not yet tested in court, says the three Ford brothers inherited Deco as a successful company from their father but Doug and Randy Ford mismanaged its operations and paid themselves “extravagant salary, bonus travel and automobile allowances and other benefits, which was paid regardless of the financial performance of those businesses.”
The lawsuit alleges that the two brothers, who ran the business while Rob Ford was a city councillor, never agreed on a business plan and wasted money on bad acquisitions. Randy Ford was a bad manager but Doug Ford made no effort to get rid of him, the lawsuit alleges.
The result was “the total operational failure of the Deco Companies’ businesses under their mismanagement and negligent direction,” the lawsuit says.
Former Deco employees have previously said publicly that Doug Ford ran Deco well but things fell apart after Rob Ford was elected mayor of Toronto in 2010, Doug took over his former city council seat, and left day-to-day control to Randy.
Deco Toronto lost money every year from 2010 to 2017, the lawsuit says — as much as $2.1 million in 2016.
As the company’s financial situation deteriorated, the lawsuit says, the brothers arranged to move money from Doug Sr.’s estate to support it, knowing that “such infusions of funds ... were not viable or prudent investments which could reasonably be expected to earn any profit, and would not remedy the serious problems with the Deco Companies’ businesses.”
Between 2007 and 2014, the value of Doug Sr.’s investments declined from between $15 million and $20 million to approximately $6.4 million, the statement of claim says. It alleges that up to another $4 million might have been taken out of the estate after that.
“In effect, the defendants mismanaged the Deco Companies to the point of insolvency, and then plundered Doug Sr.’s estate to maintain the illusion that they were successful businessmen and to retain their offices and compensation,” the lawsuit says.