[ 2012 ] Fairmont / Sunchaser / Northwynd official thread with lawsuit info!

[Bill4728]

So will Northmont be allowed to charge 24% or have to charge 5%?

 

[servemeout]

Contracts signed before 2003 are only allowed 5% per year, which is keeping within the Interest Act for Canada.

 

[Floyd55]

So where does that leave all of those who were unfairly strong armed by our own counsel to pay the ransom to these thieves before the issue of interest was able to be addressed? This whole affair stinks!

 

[GypsyOne]

Tis the season of fellowship and goodwill. Yet we read many stories on social media of people paying hard-earned money, often at great hardship, to get away from nefarious individuals who would use the system to take our money. No Goodwill there, but an egregious miscarriage of justice. How this could happen in a civilized country that operates under the rule of law is both astonishing and sad.

 

[servemeout]

Sorry for duplicate

 

[servemeout]

Floyd55, I agree that this whole affair stinks. If you paid the settlement(aka ransom) your money will not be returned. The last line on the second paragraph of the latest pack of lies is that any interest previously paid is not affected. I personally have never seen a snake with pockets. Which pocket did the sale of Hillside go into? Did any "owner" get a share? How about the ransoms -which pocket was that put into? The original amount of the RPF was given without three quotes and we were all told that it would be the stated amount. What upfront and honest business does not get more that one quote? We were not asked, we were told, the amount we would pay, and it you did not like it we will sue you A-- off. Very sad situation.
Quote from the 2019 MF communication: Second, the Resort continues to deal with ongoing delinquency from the residual actively disputing Owners.. ongoing issues and we will manage it as reasonable as we can." Any new legal case can present items not considered in other court actions and would not be res judicata. Did the group of judges know that Hillside would be sold off and Riverside would not all be renovated? They bought into the given amount for the whole resort to be renovated.

And Gypsyone tis the season, and if I recall it was very close to this time last year that the Excellent settlement agreement was reached without pre -consultation. Looking forward to next Christmas!

 

[MarcieL]

Nothing will change by next Christmas, with the exception of having more recovery time, enabling us to put this mess in the rear view mirror. Many law suits in the works apparently, let us hope that those that are continuing this battle, have competent counsel with some restitution being realized.

 

[Tanny13]

Anyone know what's happening at Lake Okanagan? I can see from this site that they've been given a deadline of January 15 and it looks and smells very similar to what we've been through...

 

[Disappointed Canadian]

Yes it is very similar but not as well executed. No payment payment plan, no real information except for “give us your money”. I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them. These people are so shady and such crooks.

I have been following this for a few years now but never posted. ‘We got suckered into the lawsuit after seeing it here, lost and are paying. Such a waste of money that it sometimes keeps me awake at night. I wish I had never seen there was a lawsuit but thought we would win. Our lawyer was either the worst lawyer alive or just someone who got bought by Wankel. We will probably never know but I hope we do someday.

Any news on the people fighting? Even though it is too late for us, I am hoping they win. Someone has to win against them. Why is this not on one of those news TV shows? This is a very interesting story I feel and affects so many Canadians and Americans.

Just a side note, we were in Mexico at a Vadanta resort in Riviera Maya in November and my husband met another couple that got caught up in this mess. Unfortunately I wish I had been there because they were as upset as us and I would have loved to have had a chat them them just for consoling purposes if nothing else. I guess they have followed her and fell for the lawsuit scheme. I just can’t get around how our government is so corrupt and inept.

 

[GypsyOne]

I don't think the BC Government was inept so much as opportunistic. They did not want a popular tourist destination to fail nor have to prop it up with public money. So they were able to have capital costs of a failing building structure, which should have been the responsibility of the Developer, off-loaded to the timeshare owners/lessees. 15000 timeshare owners thought their lease agreements protected their interests; 15000 timeshare owners were wrong. I don't blame our legal team nor JEKE, who were also blindsided, but I do blame Kirk Wankel and the Northmont gang, the opportunistic BC Government, and a compliant court system that did the Government's wishes. The timeshare owners were completely victimized by a corrupt system in favor of the BC Government and the Developer.

 

[Disappointed Canadian]

GypsyOne, I agree but how in this day and age can our government be this way. They are always giving away money, apologizing to someone and then they let this happen. I want an apology from them letting this happen. I do have to say Kirk Wankel and his band of lawyers are smart cookies to have planned all this but our government or law makers need to stop this kind of thing happening or it will just continue. They have seen where the pot at the end of the rainbow is. I am just so bitter about it. We really got taken because we had both Fairmont and Lake OKANAGAN and to top it all off we did the Legacy scheme. We must be huge suckers.

 

[GypsyOne]

Don't expect an apology from the BC government; they were part of the problem. To make this institutionalized scam work it took some degree of collusion between three entities. Firstly, the schemers at Northmont who recognized a lucrative opportunity when they saw it; secondly, the BC government who have long had a reputation for "pay-to-play" and did not want a popular tourist destination to fail nor have to prop it up with public money; thirdly, a compliant justice system that knows which side its bread is buttered on. The Fairmont site is a beautiful property with considerable potential for tourist development. Future development would be more profitable if they could evict the timeshare owners, preferably have them pay to leave, thus also being a huge source of funds for real estate development. The province could easily be cajoled / rewarded into playing ball with the developer, particularly since it was in their own best interest to do so. The courts I don't trust; quite likely they could be influenced by the Province to make the right decision, and all they had to do was to couch the decision in judicial legalese. You can call the timeshare owners suckers, or you can say that we were innocent victims of an institutionalized scam affecting around 15,000 timeshare owners. Disclaimer: I don't know for sure if it happened this way. I'm speculating, but there's lots of supporting evidence.

 

[J's Garage]

So this is mostly unrelated. Just kind of skimming through the web today and unlike post 5410, I do blame our legal team.

Reading about a scheduled hearing on a citation (related only due to it being BC Law Society.)

Here's an excerpt on the citation; "In or about February 2017, in the course of representing your client MB in family law proceedings, you advised your client contrary to one or more of rules 2.1-1(a), 2.1-3(e), or 5.6-1 of the Code of Professional Conduct for British Columbia to withhold $200 from each spousal support payment, when you knew or ought to have known that if your client followed your advice, he would be in breach of his Separation Agreement dated March 15, 2016." (emphasis added.)

I guess all I am drawing from this is some hope in that the advice, counsel, and pressure we were given also exemplifies the subsequent harm that followed.

Now the above is now at the stage of "disciplinary action".

 

[GypsyOne]

Re: Blaming our legal team:
I don't think we were going to win this pre-ordained legal action no matter how much our lawyers changed their approach, or even if we had a different legal team. It was in the best interests of the Northmont Schemers and the Province of BC that the timeshare owners would provide the capital to save a failing and poorly constructed facility, and they knew how to make that happen. The courts went along with the Schemers and the Province and ignored the fact that the timeshare owners were tenants leasing time in a facility not owners providing the facility. The timeshare owners were victimized by an institutionalized scam and there's not much our Defenders could do about it.

 

[Palms to pines]

I agree with the above and there are so many places for blame in this fiasco it is absolutely sickening. If ever lambs were led to the slaughter, it was us. However, when our “ defender “ straight up lies to us and then becomes our opposition’s bill collector, that’ s about as bad as it gets. I am so appalled by the lawyers, the justice system, the government agencies and ruthless WOW worshipping CFO’s. Retirement is not that far off for us and because of this situation it is going to be nothing like we once thought it would be. We will never recover from the financial loss of the payout to Northwynd. There is also the loss of trust in the “ system” and this country. And, that feeling of being victimized that never really goes away. It’s our new normal and I hate it.

 

[Tacoma]

Although I agree Northwynd is the main company to blame I am not nearly as kind to our lawyer as you are Gypsy One. Any lawyer worth his licence would have known when we lost this and not kept giving us hope (and taking our payments) for several more years. Can't go to trial on the same issue and throw everything at it but the kitchen sink I believe was used to describe his style of litigation. Plus his advice to not pay the maintenance fees cost me personally thousands extra and I only "owned" one week. I almost took the deal the April before for around $14000 just to be done but then Geldert came on and said he had a plan and I foolishly held on to the tune of another $10000. Was supposed to be retired by now but I'm still working. Like you Palms to Pines it's the lack of trust in a system that can let this happen that really hurts.

 

[J's Garage]

I'm quite torn. As much as I'd like to see MG stripped of his license to practice law, I'd feel uneasy for everyone that he would end up selling cars to.

 

[Spark1]

Although I agree Northwynd is the main company to blame I am not nearly as kind to our lawyer as you are Gypsy One. Any lawyer worth his licence would have known when we lost this and not kept giving us hope (and taking our payments) for several more years. Can't go to trial on the same issue and throw everything at it but the kitchen sink I believe was used to describe his style of litigation. Plus his advice to not pay the maintenance fees cost me personally thousands extra and I only "owned" one week. I almost took the deal the April before for around $14000 just to be done but then Geldert came on and said he had a plan and I foolishly held on to the tune of another $10000. Was supposed to be retired by now but I'm still working. Like you Palms to Pines it's the lack of trust in a system that can let this happen that really hurts.[/

Although I agree Northwynd is the main company to blame I am not nearly as kind to our lawyer as you are Gypsy One. Any lawyer worth his licence would have known when we lost this and not kept giving us hope (and taking our payments) for several more years. Can't go to trial on the same issue and throw everything at it but the kitchen sink I believe was used to describe his style of litigation. Plus his advice to not pay the maintenance fees cost me personally thousands extra and I only "owned" one week. I almost took the deal the April before for around $14000 just to be done but then Geldert came on and said he had a plan and I foolishly held on to the tune of another $10000. Was supposed to be retired by now but I'm still working. Like you Palms to Pines it's the lack of trust in a system that can let this happen that really hurts.

I received an email a few weeks ago saying Thought I’d let you know I received my invoiced calculated at 26.825% interest. Said I needed to call the resort for the new adjusted rate. Why did it take so long to tell the time Lease owners that 5% number and why so long for the appeal. Interest compounding at 26.825% and Geldert and Wankel’s Threat of 162%. Northmont should have to pay that money they extorted from Lease owners back with interest. Because of the planned bankruptcy you are paying money for something that has no value. This timeshare has as much value as what the promissory note that Wankel sent to the bond holders, it was Zero. The bond holders have now filed a second class suit against the Scammers. Talk to Richard Gotfried and ask him is there any way to sue these crooks using a independent Judge that is not connected with this scam. Every appeal is res judicata. Why waste your money. If Northmont is charging this kind of money the value has to be there. Take that value and use it to get a loan from the bank and see what happens. Justice Romaine allowing this bankruptcy and she is an Alberta Judge automatically means this is a Service Alberta Case therefore they are responsible for the Consumer Protection ACT. There was no protection from this NDP Service Alberta. Tell them to pay for something that is worthless. Take this to your Ombudsman in each province it would be safer than going in front of these one sidedjudges. When the judge ruled on the appeal this is where it ended as far as I am concerned. That judge felt that $6000.00 plus maintenance fees was ridiculous to expect from time Lease owners and here the Judges are letting the extorters To take millions from many that can not even afford their monthly bills. I believe these judges are part of this. Geldert is a back stabber. Say what you want but what i see is this was all planned by him and Wankel. Nov03/2017 he sends me the this MLT AIKINS this 9 page $38000.00 document. This was the document he said he would be using to get Northmont to the table. It totally was all about The illegal Unilateral Amendments and modification of our contracts. It also talked about the trustees investigatory Authority, Northmont’s Liability for operating costs,conditions Precedent to action by Corporation/Trustee, the Trustee Must Excercise its Direction to Investigate Northmont,s Request and the Petition Proccding. This was done by a very good lawyer which Geldert told me was his friend. WHY Did they not use this document to get Wankel to the table. Why did Geldert Lie to me and tell me he got them to the table and now they are going to have to pay the 25.4 Million they owe the resort for maintenance of buildings they took over because of cancellations. He also told me they will not be able to remove buildings out of the timeshare and this will bankrupted them. What is Wankel paying Geldert and why did Geldert and David Wotherspoon not use the MLT AIKINS document?

 

[GypsyOne]

More questions than answers. One thing is certain, it's a tangled mess; and maybe that's by design. Who has the time, the resources, and the will to sort out this mess?

 

[Ultimate_Betrayal]

Hello Everyone,

It's been awhile since my last post but like a lot of you I am watching in the background hoping some good will come our way.

Some of us who have been affected by Geldert's deceit have now filed their own claims against him but of special interest is that Geldert has just replied to these claims and both the claim and associated reply are available to view / download on the BC Court website https://justice.gov.bc.ca/cso/esearch/civil/searchPartyResult.do?serviceId=50617112 for a small fee (to do the search put in last name "Geldert" and initial "M").

This is what you should see after you put in the search criteria:

I paid $12 to view and download one of the Claims which gives a bit of insight as to what Geldert thinks he provided as value added services to us, which in my opinion, there is a lot of failings based on what he says he provided versus what we received especially surrounding the final negotiation with Northwynd that truly failed us all even those that were effectively forced removed by Geldert to fend for themselves.

What I find most interesting in the reply is that there are actual disclosures of settlement amounts made by Geldert - the Claimant was very careful not to specify specific amounts as to not put them in breach of the confidentiality clause but at least to a layman like me Geldert has not given the same consideration to the confidentiality terms which I believe may constitute a breach of the actual settlement agreement.

Now another thing that appears to aggravate matters as part of the great negotiated settlement was the 27% interest penalty incorporated against all of us who were forced into the settlement but there are a number of people who were forced into their settlements or into a consent judgement with pre-2004 contracts that now have more reason to make a Claim against Geldert. The statuary rate of the Interest Act rate is 5% for these contracts as ruled on by the courts in Dec 2018 - this also means if there are people out there who have yet to settle with a pre-2004 contract they need to ensure to immediately reduce their penalty amount and negotiations should start at the proper amount after interest adjustments, not an inflated interest amount.

Attached is the Interest Act ruling for those that don't have a copy.

 

[Frustrated YEG]

Excellent information and news. Thank you for this. Hopefully we can make Mr. Geldert feel the financial pain that we have all had to endure.
However, I also feel some of his cohorts such as Vincent Tong and Barry King from Strathcona Law should bear some responsibility for their lack of knowledge in not bringing this up and allowing this case to continue ad nauseam. Every lawyer associated with the Geldert Team bears responsibility and should not walk away unscathed.

 

[J's Garage]

At times I do meditate on how much better off (or at least less worse off) we could have been if Geldert had removed the fairy glitter and added some substance to his "comprehensive" updates. The amount of time he billed the group for repeatedly but individually asking/addressing the near same questions.

Seems there are parallels that could come into play since he charged some pretty pennies to be "resolving" issues he created due to what (IMHO) seems like a Messiah complex.

Here's an interesting read I found that I wonder if we could draw some parallels to: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/lawyer-billing-hours-complaint-family-1.4575847

 

[MarcieL]

Several comments in the above article, leaves little confidence with internal investigations!

 

[MarcieL]

I agree with the above and there are so many places for blame in this fiasco it is absolutely sickening. If ever lambs were led to the slaughter, it was us. However, when our “ defender “ straight up lies to us and then becomes our opposition’s bill collector, that’ s about as bad as it gets. I am so appalled by the lawyers, the justice system, the government agencies and ruthless WOW worshipping CFO’s. Retirement is not that far off for us and because of this situation it is going to be nothing like we once thought it would be. We will never recover from the financial loss of the payout to Northwynd. There is also the loss of trust in the “ system” and this country. And, that feeling of being victimized that never really goes away. It’s our new normal and I hate it.

We are retired and have no means of recouping the $$. Holidays and the little luxuries we once had, are now non existent. I left my exercise coffee group last week amid tears, as they discussed their cruise holidays. This experience, has left me an angry, bitter person, with an absolute loss of trust in our legal system.

 

[Spark1]

We are retired and have no means of recouping the $$. Holidays and the little luxuries we once had, are now non existent. I left my exercise coffee group last week amid tears, as they discussed their cruise holidays. This experience, has left me an angry, bitter person, with an absolute loss of trust in our legal system.

We are retired and have no means of recouping the $$. Holidays and the little luxuries we once had, are now non existent. I left my exercise coffee group last week amid tears, as they discussed their cruise holidays. This experience, has left me an angry, bitter person, with an absolute loss of trust in our legal system.

Yes it is not just about the money it is about the stress it has caused and stress is a killer. What I would like is all of you to go back to page #96 on Tug and go to Punters Post. Now click on https://offshore leaks and a Sunchaser Resorts INC .lICI Offshore Leaks Database will come up. Go down to the bottom of the page and you will see Murray Moore Director 31-March-2009. This was the date he took over from Collin Knight. Collin Knight started the Bankruptcy of FRPL. Than Murray Moore was replaced by Patrick Fitzsimonds on. 07-July-2010. What this means is Collin Knight set up these accounts before he did his planned bankruptcy. A lady by the name Judy Parkin used wiki leaks to dig up this information. This is what Sandy N Lee Merriman had to say I take it you are referring to Sunchaser Resorts INC that turned up in the Panama Papers through Wiki Leaks, whereby Collin Knight resigned as a director on the day Fairmont declared bankruptcy March 30/2009. Was replaced by none other than Murray Moore,the person given control of Fairmont through bankruptcy. And on the exact day it emerged as Northwynd on July 07,2010, Murray Moore was replaced by Patrick Fitzsimonds. One rarely gets to see a sitting Judge ....Justice Romaine made a fool out of with an orchestratrated Bankruptcy she bought hook,line and sinker, but there it is signed ,sealed, and delivered in the Alberta Queens Bench and because it is nine years old, nothing any of us can do about it.
Judy reported this to the CRA .
Sandy asks Judy hopefully you brought this to the CRA’s attention the 89 million dollars of deferred income Fairmont was to declare as income at a rate of 1/40 per year. However instead of reporting any of it, they buried it all in the fake bankruptcy. While the CRA generally can only go back 3 years due to statute barring, they can go back as far as they want when Fraud is involved. I would think a fake bankruptcy qualifies as fraud, therefore, the tax plus interest on 89 million would bury these guys. My thoughts they should all go to jail. Also was this Judge also connected with these bandits? You have to wonder.