The Calgary Sun
CALGARY, Canada (CP) -- A Calgary police sergeant is being sued by a group of junior officers over an investment scheme involving cheap hockey sticks.
Five members of the Calgary Police Service filed a statement of claim last week seeking more than $700,000 in damages from Staff Sgt. Kirk McCallum.
The decorated officer is named along with a business partner in a court action and alleged to have duped the investors out of their cash.
“The defendants were knowingly operating a `Ponzi scheme’ wherein the funds of subsequent `investors’ were used to repay earlier investors in order to provide the semblance of an ongoing and viable business,” the statement claims.
Allegations in a statement of claim are unproven and must be established in court before any liability can be determined. McCallum declined comment.
Calgary police would not verify whether a criminal investigation is underway.
Lawyer Robb Beeman, who represents the five officers and a retired homicide detective who is also suing, said some of his clients lost their life savings.
The serving officers, Richard Demchuk, Barry Harper, Anthony Manning, Richard Rudd and Ross Serbin, lost between $84,250 and $160,000 each, the lawsuit claims.
Former homicide Det. George Bushell filed a similar lawsuit against McCallum in October 2002.
That action is being defended by McCallum and is likely to go to trial in the fall.
The five officers say they invested in a business being run by McCallum and Daryl Heiligsetzer called Radar Sports. The company was to supply cheaply purchased hockey sticks made in Canada to organizations throughout North America, their claim states.
They were told by McCallum that Radar Sports “had already signed supply contracts with hockey organizations.”
Since the contracts were paid on a 90-day basis, McCallum and Heiligsetzer “needed short-term loans or investments which would be repaid with interest,” the lawsuit says.
After 90 days the officers were to be repaid their initial investment, along with interest of up to 20 per cent, it says.
But in September 2002, they were told no money would be forthcoming, the court action states.
A statement of defence disputing the allegations has not yet been filed.