A retired Nanaimo couple who mortgaged their home to finance their son’s investment in a shady junior mining venture say a court-ordered restitution deadline has come and gone, and they still haven’t been paid.
Bob and Michaela Davidson, who are in their 70s, were bilked out of $144,000 by Kelly Fielder, a Vancouver stock promoter who was arrested in 2012 and sentenced in December to an 18-month conditional sentence, including six months of house arrest, for theft over $5,000, following a joint investigation by the BC Securities Commission and Vancouver police.
On top of the 18-month conditional sentence and 50 hours of community service, the court ordered Fielder to pay Bob Davidson $144,000.
The restitution order, dated November 20, 2014, gave Fielder 30 days to pay. But the Davidsons say Fielder has yet to pay them anything.
They fear they may never get their money back, and even if they do get some back, it could cost a small fortune in legal fees.
“Whether any money can be recovered is questionable,” Bob Davidson told Business in Vancouver.
The Davidsons said they believe Fielder may own a home in Point Grey, and are now planning to file a court order asking for a judgment against Fielder in the hope of garnisheeing any assets he may have.
Meanwhile, that Davidsons have already had to pay $36,000 in interest on their loan.
The scam dates back to 2010, when the Davidsons’ son, Robert Davidson Jr., invested in a scheme to take a junior exploration company called Savannah Gold Ltd.
public on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
He was told that Savannah had an undeveloped gold mine project in Nigeria. Savannah Gold has since changed its name to Savannah Mining Ltd. and is still an active, private gold exploration company with assets in Nigeria.
According to Bob Davidson, his son – who now lives and works in Dubai – was told he would back twice what he invested within 90 days.
But the money went to a numbered company of which Fielding was the sole director. Davidson did receive $25,500, but the rest of his investment vanished, Bob Davidson said, and Fielder could no longer be reached.
“He went underground very quickly,” Bob Davidson said. “He wouldn’t return phone calls.”
The Davidsons characterize their son’s investment as a “desperate” bet made by someone who had lost his job in a downsizing in the wake of the 2009 financial crisis and was going through a messy divorce.
Fielder has been associated with a number of now-defunct penny stock companies listed on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board.
He also served as corporate secretary and director for Lion One Metals Ltd. (TSX-V:LIO), a Vancouver junior that is trying to develop the Tuvatu gold mine in Fiji. He resigned from that company “for personal reasons” in June 2012, according to a Lions One news release.
Fielder was also was listed in 2012 as a director for Nova Scotia-based Elcora Resources Corp. (TSX-V:ERA), which is planning to change its name to Graphene Corp. He is no longer listed as a director of Elcora.
He is also said named as the CEO of Resilient Energy, an oil and gas exploration company that claimed to have producing projects in New Mexico, Denver, Wyoming and Montana, and a director for Spectrum Meditech, based in Vancouver.
Attempts were made to reach Fielder, but the person who answered the number listed on Resilient Energy’s website as Fielder’s claimed he was not Fielder and did not know him or Resilient Energy.
