Investors give up fight against Alberta ex-pastor

WATCH ABOVE: 16×9’s “A Preacher’s Promise”

Alberta investors who lost their life savings in real estate ventures promoted by a former Lethbridge pastor have discontinued their $500 million class action lawsuit.

The suit against developer Ron Aitkens was dropped because “you reach a point in these things where you don’t want to throw good money after bad,” said a Calgary lawyer acting for the investors.

READ MORE: Investors file massive class-action suit against Lethbridge businessman

Even if you win, said lawyer Blair Yorke-Slater, “that’s a Phyrric victory unless you find bags of cash.”

“We recovered some funds, but we didn’t hit the home run.”

The lawsuit alleged that Aitkens and seven other people formed the Harvest Group of Companies, and convinced thousands of Western Canada investors to put their money into 16 different real estate projects, none of which was ever developed.

READ MORE: 16×9: What the preacher promised

The class action suit, which alleged misappropriation through a “pyramid or Ponzi scheme,” was never certified by the courts; as a result individual investors are now free to sue Aitkens on their own.

In an investigative report called “A Preacher’s Promise,” broadcast last season on 16×9, Aitkens claimed poverty, saying he was worse off than other investors. “At least they have something of value (the land),” he told 16×9. “I put everything back into the company.”

But Nicole Shurko, an Edmonton financial planner whose clients invested in Aitkens’ projects and lost their money, says the case remains unsettled.

“He still ran all those companies into the ground, and there’s still a mass of money unaccounted for.”

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In another development, Darla Slattery, one of the investors featured in the 16×9 story, died of brain cancer in a Calgary hospital on July 30. She and her husband Kres had invested their life-savings—nearly $25,000—into two Aitkens projects, and they requested the money back to pay for special cancer treatment. They never got the money.

Meanwhile, both the Alberta Securities Commission and the Saskatchewan government have outstanding regulatory charges against Aitkens, alleging he violated sections of the Securities Act.

You can watch an encore presentation of “The Preacher’s Promise” this Saturday at 7pm on 16×9.