An Ontario Ponzi scheme operator who presupposed to be making lipstick to bilk her victims out of tens of millions of {dollars} has been sentenced to 4 years in jail and fined $610,856.
If she will be able to’t pay the superb levied by the Ontario Courtroom of Justice inside 5 years of her jail sentence expiring, Glenda Marie Esteves should serve one other 18 months behind bars.
“I discover Ms. Esteves is fully chargeable for the monetary lack of each sufferer of her fraudulent scheme. She was the only beneficiary of the tens of millions of {dollars} she fraudulently obtained. The placement of the cash is unknown,” Justice Cidalia Faria wrote in a latest resolution out of Toronto.
The Crown filed 22 sufferer impression statements in Esteves’ case.
“Studying these statements is to learn a litany of heartache and hardship, damaged guarantees and damaged desires, deep betrayal, and important monetary loss,” Faria stated. “The impression has been wide-ranging, together with not solely adverse financial penalties, however psychological injury so extreme that some victims grew to become bodily ailing.”
Private losses for her victims ranged from “as little as $8,750 to as excessive as $273,578.15,” stated the choose, noting these “have been the life financial savings they misplaced, or the money owed they incurred to speculate and are actually liable to pay for.”
The Crown pegged complete losses for Esteves’ victims at almost $5 million, however the choose decided that their complete “readily ascertainable” losses have been $610,856.
Esteves’ “elaborate fraud,” befell over 4 years, stated the choose.
“She was the only proprietor of ‘Mac Glamour Inc.’ Each earlier than and after she included this firm, she enticed traders to put money into her enterprise with excessive charges of return,” Faria stated.
“She presupposed to make and promote lipstick. She claimed to acquire supplies from MAC, a well known cosmetics firm, combine these supplies, create her personal lipstick, after which promote these lipsticks to a modelling firm referred to as Q Modelling NYC. Ms. Esteves claimed the revenue margin was the distinction between the price of the uncooked supplies from MAC, and the sale worth of the completed product to Q Modelling.”
However “the precise manufacturing of lipsticks didn’t exist,” stated the choose.
“Ms. Esteves by no means made lipsticks. The cash traders supplied her was by no means invested within the firm referred to as Mac Glamour as she claimed.”
As an alternative, Esteves “obtained funding cash by forging numerous banking paperwork and used them to influence traders that Mac Glamour had tens of millions of {dollars} in a company account. Mac Glamour had no such account.”
She used the solid financial institution paperwork to place traders who have been owed cash comfy “and persuaded them to speculate additional quantities,” Faria stated. “Cash that was paid out as an ‘funding return’ was cash obtained from different traders. The enterprise mannequin was thereby operated as a Ponzi scheme.”
Lots of her victims “have been from her ethnic neighborhood of Filipino origin,” stated the choose. “The overall variety of victims Ms. Esteves defrauded has by no means been quantified.”
Esteves pleaded responsible in 2022 to fraud over $5,000, uttering a cast doc, and committing theft below false pretenses, between January 2015 and October 2019.
“Born within the Philippines in 1974, Ms. Esteves is an informed 50-year-old married lady with two grownup kids,” the choose stated in her resolution dated July 31.
“Esteves is the oldest of eight siblings, six of whom nonetheless stay within the Philippines, whereas she cares for and gives for the youngest sibling who lives along with her in Toronto. She grew up in poverty and left her nation of origin to make a greater life for herself.”
Her husband was additionally charged within the Ponzi scheme investigation. However Esteves informed the court docket she “deceived” him as effectively, and he “is just not chargeable for any fraudulent conduct.”
The writer of her pre-sentence report famous “Esteves has misplaced assist in her Filipino neighborhood as many have been her victims. She has change into unhappy and depressed consequently, lowering her social interactions, and specializing in her household.”
Esteves expressed regret, telling the court docket she was in “full management of the operation” and that she “takes full accountability.”
Esteves stated the enterprise “progressed from borrowing cash, accumulating debt, after which, when she was unable to pay her loans, she began the frilly scheme to acquire cash. She lied to folks and her lies grew to become greater. She stated she started to imagine her personal lies which spiraled her uncontrolled. She apologized to the victims, her household and her neighborhood accepting the whole thing of her blameworthiness.”
One sufferer, Anthony Wang, “misplaced his financial savings which made him unable to purchase a house for his six-person household,” stated the choice. “They have been all compelled to stay in an 800 (sq.) foot condominium throughout the pandemic. He needed to transfer to Alberta to have the ability to afford a house. He grew to become bodily ailing and developed a medical situation that value him financially and made him miss work. He doesn’t belief his family anymore as they have been those who invited him into the scheme.”
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