The owner of a home destroyed in a suspected arson fire Sunday night once fought a U.S. deportation order to Canada, claiming he would be “tortured and killed” for acting as a police informant in a murder-for-hire plot.

Bojidar Zahariev made the argument in a California court in 2003 but was ultimately ordered back to Canada after a judge found no evidence to support the claim.

The Bulgarian immigrant returned to Toronto, co-founded a high end skin-care company and purchased a home in Oakwood Ave.-Vaughan Rd. area.

Zahariev, his wife and two young children managed to escape that home unscathed before it was destroyed in a five-alarm fire that broke out around 10 p.m. Boxing Day. The family had just returned home after staying elsewhere because of two other targeted attacks this month, police said.

On Dec. 3, bullets were fired into the house. Three days later, someone lobbed a Molotov cocktail at it in the middle of the night. No one was hurt in any of the incidents.

“We’ve put a lot of time into this house this month. It’s concerning,” said Toronto police Det. Paul Lentsch, who is leading the investigation alongside the fire marshal. The cause has not yet been determined.

“It would appear it may be an arson,” said police Sgt. Alvin Hall. “There is a history (with this house).”

Two weeks ago, a man in his 30s was arrested for uttering death threats against Zahariev. Lentsch could not give the individual’s name, but said he is still in police custody and has a “history” with police.

Lentsch did not say the man was a suspect in the fire, but said, “there’s always a possible connection.”

Court documents detail Zahariev’s lengthy criminal record in California, including convictions in 1996 and 2000 for grand theft auto, making a false financial statement, perjury and grand theft. He was sentenced to a total of four years in prison.

In 1999, Zahariev was swept up in a two-year probe led by the FBI called Operation Magstrip. During the investigation, undercover police bought millions of dollars worth of counterfeit cash, cheques and credit cards, along with 13 gun silencers, a kilogram of cocaine and about half a kilogram of methamphetamine.

Zahariev, then 39 and using the alias Michael McKenzie, was charged with using interstate commerce to carry out a murder for hire, possession of illegal silencers and parts used to illegally convert firearms to machine guns. It’s unknown whether he was convicted on these charges.

When U.S. authorities ordered him out of the country in 2002, Zahariev claimed he had a “special relationship” with the government and as such, they had a “duty to protect” him. The judge disagreed, upholding the deportation order in 2003.

In 2007, Zahariev told the Star he had moved to Los Angeles from Toronto to pursue photography. He opened a restaurant in Burbank and met Dr. David Vesco at the Bulgarian church they both attended.

The two co-founded The American Catechin Research Institute, based in Toronto, and launched the skin-care line L’Acrima on The Shopping Channel in Canada.

Going by the name Bo Zakariev-MacKendonskii at the time, he explained to the Star that he was banking on the Canadian market, as opposed to the U.S., because it was “much less expensive to launch here than the U.S.”

The company was briefly endorsed by Steven Seagal, who grew herbs used in the L’Acrima product before selling his ranch in 2007. Seagal’s lawyer, Martin Singer, said the actor has not had contact with anyone from the company since then.

A BMW outside Zahariev’s scorched home on Winona Dr. is registered to The American Catechin Research Institute. An address listed on the company’s website is home to a store that sells L’Acrima products in a tony shopping centre on Avenue Rd.

The store was closed Monday and neither Zahariev nor his business partner could be reached for comment.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Since coming back to Canada, Zahariev has kept a clean criminal record.

His Winona Dr. home sits between modest bungalows across from the Vaughan Road Academy secondary school and appears to be newly renovated.

Next-door neighbour Angela Giaouridis said Zahariev recently installed security cameras in front of the house, and had private security guards patrolling outside this month.