At first, he seems to be a straight shooter, likable, charming. 16×9 spoke to some people who claim he tells tales of great wealth, mansions and private jets. But they also say he’s a serial conman.
The town of Penticton, BC sits in the desert-like expanse of the South Okanagan Valley. In 2006, Harry Kroeker, a longtime city councilor in Merritt, BC was looking for a retirement home.
“We had sold our place, we needed somebody. We needed someplace. And I think that’s one of the reasons why I really got conned into it, because I was really anxious to get to my home. So I was just about willing to do anything to speed up the process.”
Enter Robert Robertson, who Harry says extracted $60,000 as a down payment on what should have been a new home for him and his wife. The only problem was Harry says it turned out Robertson didn’t even own the land.
“I can’t believe anyone would do that, but it’s somebody who has a lot of confidence in himself that he’s going to get away with it.”
Dr. Bob Offer says he has a more personal motive for exposing Robert Robertson; his sister Maureen began dating him.
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“I was invited for dinner with my wife at the time and recognized immediately within seconds that this guy was a con.”
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Bob says he became concerned when Robertson started making claims about a medical device he said he invented called Oxygen Four.
“He’s talking about things in the pharmaceutical industry, with which I’m fairly familiar, that are absolutely impossible.”
He says the new couple spent one Christmas with the family before Robertson wore out his welcome.
“Her children, by and large have disowned her. They don’t want any contact.
Marten Kroes knows that feeling well. Robertson came into his life soon after he’d started a home construction business. He hired Robertson as a salesman, but says Robertson soon started to sabotage sales and drive a wedge between the partners. The company started losing vast sums of money before it went under, taking the investors and 50 employees down with it all, according to Marten, because of Robertson’s actions.
“Company’s gone…bankrupt, building is gone. I guess we all have moved on with our lives or tried to move on. I just have one thing left. Robert is still walking.”
16×9’s investigation of Robert Robertson discovered accusations of fraudulent dealings totaling at least $2 million all over North America, going back at least two decades. We spoke with Robert Robertson by phone from his home in Belize. He claims many of his businesses failed through no fault of his own, and he didn’t do anything wrong.
“Well the businesses, all those people invested in an idea, and they knew exactly what was going on. At every step they knew exactly what was happening,” he says.
Robertson had no sympathy for Marten Kroes and his failed venture either.
“I will not respond to Marten Kroes. He’s had a vendetta for me from the moment I walked into the door of that company. I went there to try and save it for his partners so he’s a non-issue.”
As for Harry Kroeker’s real estate down payment, Robertson says the housing development hit a surprise obstacle that had nothing to do with him.
“(We) found out that we really couldn’t build because the property was actually totally sand.”
As it turns out, Robertson could have been arrested before he even got to BC. 16×9 has learned that Toronto Police issued a warrant for Robertson in 2005, in connection with a “large fraud”, but never took Robertson into custody. Robertson says he didn’t know about the warrant.
“I’m really disappointed. I think the system has really let us down,” says Bob Offer. “It’s almost as if the system doesn’t even really care about white collar crimes.
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