Article content continued

The Ontario Securities Commission collection rate is better than B.C.’s, at about 18 per cent in the past decade, but there are still $370 million in uncollected fines, according to Postmedia’s analysis.

Alberta and Quebec have similar collection rates to Ontario.

“The old saying, patience is virtuous, it’s even more so in this field,” said Irving Fox, a partner at Speigel Nichols Fox.

He noted that one file the firm handled took 200 hours of investigation time. “We take nothing at face value,” said Fox.

The firm’s collections department — headed by chief law clerk Tiziana Moretti — typically builds a profile of a debtor, including tracking assets through spouses, children, other family members and business partners. That can include a history of property ownership and tracing how funds have been used to pay for properties and from where they originated.

The Postmedia investigation showed fraudsters often placed property in the names of spouses or property was held jointly.

Fox said those assets can be attacked if they can be shown to be transferred to escape penalties or debts, or if in essence, the fraudster was a beneficial owner.

Even if a property was put in a spouse’s name well before the fraudulent activity, Moretti said that would not deter her from going after the asset. “I would look at somebody basically from when they were born, who their family members were, when they bought their first house. There’s a pattern with these people. You’ll see that. They start getting more entrepreneurial — that’s when they will put the house into their spouse’s name,” noted Moretti.