Rethink Campaigns

Request for CRA Investigation of CHIMP & Its Empire of 200 Vancouver Charities

For many charities, 2020 was tough. Hard to raise money. But not for a Vancouver charity known as CHIMP.

Last year, CHIMP reported almost $150 million in tax-receipted donations. To put that into perspective, consider that CHIMP, a relatively new charity, raised five times as much as Vancouver Foundation which has been the biggest charity in the city for 75 years.

Before I go further, I hasten to emphasize that Vancouver Foundation is not affiliated with CHIMP. I mention it here simply as a point of comparison. 

Now, back to CHIMP ...

Since it began, CHIMP has helped more than 110,000 people donate to 9,000 charities across Canada - or so it said until a few days ago. CHIMP has since retracted that claim, as shown below.  So who is CHIMP and why is it suddenly changing its story?

CHIMP is a federally registered charity set up by Blake Bromley, a retired Vancouver lawyer, and a couple of his associates. CHIMP is now run by Bromley's sons, John and Clif.

Blake Bromley has started 650 charities that handled $2 BILLION worth of giving, he says.  Over the past four years, I have identified 200 of these charities. Since nearly all of them are run out of the same office and by the same core group of people who are Bromley's employees and former employees, I refer to these as "The Bromley Charities."  According to their tax returns, these 200 charities have reported more than $1 BILLION in tax-receipted donations. That's a lot of money - and a lot of tax relief. So what do these charities have to show for themselves?

Two of the flagship projects of these charities were Quest University in Squamish and Fortius Sport & Health Centre in Burnaby, B.C. The Bromley Charities that started the university and the sports centre reported more than half a billion dollars in tax-receipted donations and gifts ($425M & $106M). With that level of support, both Quest and Fortius should be in good shape but that is not the case. Last year, both Quest and Fortius collapsed.

Quest was forced into creditor protection and sold to pay a debt to one of The Bromley Charities. As a result of the sale, the university lost ownership of all its land and buildings and is now reduced to leasing its campus from the new owner.

Fortius Sport & Health Centre also closed last year, citing financial difficulties, and was purchased by The City of Burnaby.

The sale of Quest and Fortius resulted in huge payments to The Bromley Charities for $25 million and $26 million, respectively.

Just a few years ago, CHIMP gave $74 million to Fortius Foundation, the charity that built and owned the sport centre before it was bought by The City of Burnaby. If that $74 million was real money, there's no way that the sports centre should've needed a $26 million dollar bail-out from Burnaby taxpayers.

To continue reading, click here.

The Liberal Party, Josh Vander Vies, CHIMP & The Bromley Charities

Integrity is on the minds of many voters as we head to the polls for Canada’s 44^th election. This is partly because three times, the Ethics Commissioner has found that Justin Trudeau broke the rules, and because the early media coverage of Jody Wilson-Raybould’s new book, released this week, has stoked our disgust with bad behaviour.

Both the Liberals and the Conservatives have recently dropped candidates due to incidents that were missed in their initial vetting. The Liberals lost Raj Saini over allegations of sexual harassment and the Conservatives turfed Lisa Robinson for a 2017 tweet that said, "Muslims go home."

In the spirit of transparency promised by the Liberals, voters deserve the full story about one of their candidates in Vancouver, Josh Vander Vies, and CHIMP, a registered charity engaged in complex charitable giving arrangements that are the focus of an RCMP file.

Last week, Justin Trudeau tweeted a shout-out to Vander Vies. “Can’t wait to welcome you to Ottawa, Josh!” Katie Telford, Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, also chimed in. Evidently, Vander Vies has the Liberal’s endorsement at the highest level.

As Josh puts it, he was born without arms, legs or limits. To his credit, he became a Paralympic athlete, winning bronze in boccia. Vander Vies is also a lawyer, he’s in-house legal counsel to CHIMP. Josh has been with CHIMP since 2012 when it set up a fund for his boccia training and travel.

Vander Vies’ job at CHIMP is relevant to his pursuit of public office because CHIMP’s finances are under significant scrutiny. 

In 2018, The Globe and Mail published an in-depth investigation which found that wealthy donors get big tax breaks – and their donations back.

For 2020, the Independent Auditor's Report on CHIMP, done by Deloitte, says that the auditors were unable to obtain sufficient audit appropriate evidence to support the carrying value of $193 million in unlisted securities. Why couldn’t Deloitte vouch for $193 million, just last year? Vander Vies and John Bromley, CHIMP's CEO have been asked to explain. So far, no reply.

The fact that Vander Vies is a candidate casts doubt on whether a re-elected Liberal government would take action to address the monkey business that has been going on at CHIMP.

CHIMP was registered as a charity by Blake Bromley, a Vancouver lawyer specialized in charity and tax planning. CHIMP is run by Bromley's sons, John and Clif.

Bromley claims to have registered 650 charities that processed $2 billion in tax-receipted donations. Some of these charities caught my eye because of their unusual names such as  Trust Me Foundation and Maple Syrup Mafia Foundation. The latter purports to support missionary work but it has never given a nickel to any organization, its tax returns show.

For five years, I have obtained the tax returns and financial statements from CRA, upon request, and have followed the finances of CHIMP plus 200 charities that use the same address as CHIMP and are directed primarily by Bromley’s employees (“The Bromley Charities”). Except for CHIMP, most have no staff and no public presence, not even a website. To me, these charities seem like units in a large operation, multiple pockets in the same pair of pants.

Christopher Richardson, the Official Agent for Josh Vander Vies was also a director of CHIMP for nine years (2009-2018) has been a director of 40 of The Bromley Charities.

Since it began in 2011, CHIMP's growth has been astonishing. Tax-receipted donations have soared from less than $150,000 to nearly $150 million (2011 to 2020). Within the charitable sector, this rate of growth is highly unusual. To put CHIMP’s growth into perspective, consider that CHIMP, a relatively new charity, raised five times as much as Vancouver Foundation which has been the biggest charity in the city for 75 years.[i]

What is also unusual is that more than 80 percent of the donations that were tax-receipted by CHIMP last here were non-cash, the same type of donation that CHIMP’s Independent Auditor was unable to vouch for.

In 2019, CHIMP added "thousands more donors" and funded 3,600 charities, according to its annual report, signed by Josh Vander Vies.

Indeed, CHIMP operates nationwide but its charitable impact is questionable because thousands of CHIMP’s gifts are meaninglessly small. For example, the Missing Children's Society and the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre were both funded via CHIMP but got less than $5 each. More than 2,000 charities across Canada got $19 or less: 624 charities in Ontario, 426 in Quebec, 550 in British Columbia and 400 charities in other provinces and territories.

The thousands of very tiny gifts create a façade of nationwide benevolence but the reality is that by dollar value, the majority of CHIMP’s “giving” goes to The Bromley Charities and the vast majority of their giving goes back to CHIMP. By my analysis, between 2015 and 2020, The Bromley Charities gave "gifts" for a total of $265 million, but less than $2 million went outside the Bromley network. Fully $178 million went to CHIMP.

For a gift to be a true gift, there needs to be an intention on behalf of a donor to benefit the recipient, with a corresponding impoverishment to the donor. Furthermore, there must be a true transfer of property without expectation of something in return. In the case of the many of the gifts between The Bromley Charities and CHIMP, I question how these criteria are met.  Many of the “gifts” between The Bromley Charities are promissory notes, loans, mortgages and software license agreements that are transferred from one charity to the next.

For example, a software license agreement for $1,845,000 was gifted between CHIMP and four of The Bromley Charities, passed from one to the next and then entirely written off. In addition to being CHIMP’s lawyer, Josh Vander Vies was also a director of one of these charities, Real Champions Foundation

One of the largest gifts made by CHIMP was $74.7 million gifted to Fortius Foundation, one of The Bromley Charities. Years ago, Fortius Foundation built a sports centre in Burnaby, B.C. and owned it until the centre was sold for $26.6 million to the City of Burnaby, ostensibly due to financial troubles that began long before COVID.

The assessed value of the buildings that comprise the sports centre is $15.7 million so it seems odd that despite CHIMP’s huge gift just two years ago, the sports centre needed a substantial bail-out from Burnaby taxpayers.

Corporate records for CHIMP, signed by Josh Vander Vies, show that last year, CHIMP’s entire board resigned and was replaced.

Concerned that there might be some monkey business going on at CHIMP, I provided information to the Economic Crime Unit at the Burnaby RCMP, in January.  They opened a file. Last week, I was told that the RCMP has completed a report. Whether any wrongdoing was found, and whether a full investigation will be commenced, I haven’t been told. RCMP should act on their report, especially now that someone from CHIMP seeks to be a Member of Parliament.

Overall, I see how The Bromley Charities benefit each other and how CHIMP benefits the CEO's private company, as I'll explain ahead, but I do not see that The Bromley Charities operate for purposes that are exclusively charitable - which is what the law requires.

Tax planning is legitimate. The right of taxpayers to minimize their tax payable is enshrined in The Income Tax Act but it has too many loopholes and grey zones that allow charities to issue tax receipts that far exceed the true value of a gift, especially for non-cash gifts of unlisted securities. There used to be an unwritten rule that diddling charities was off-limits. Those days are gone.

As our country wobbles towards economic recovery, we can’t continue to allow tax shenanigans made possible by lax laws and scant oversight.

Since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister, the charity audits completed by the CRA have fallen from 845 to 279 per year between 2014 and 2019, CRA says.

Mark Blumberg, a Toronto lawyer specialized in charity, has made recommendations to improve CRA oversight and protect the public trust in charities. The Blumberg Recommendations were part of the 2021 budget process but were not implemented. 

Blumberg recommended specific amendments to Section 241 of the Income Tax Act:

1) Increase minimum amount a charity is required to spend each year,

2) Allow CRA to disclose serious non-compliance, and

3) Create a unit within the RCMP, or other police force, to review complicated, abusive charity schemes that provide inappropriate donation receipts or undue benefits.

Other recommendations were also made.

The next federal government should put The Blumberg Recommendations into law.

To continue reading, click here.

Josh Vander Vies, Liberal Party (federal), Candidate for Vancouver East and ..... The Bromley Charities PART 2

Two of the major projects of The Bromley Charities are Quest University Canada (“Quest”) in Squamish, B.C., and Fortius Sport & Health Centre (“The Sports Centre”) in Burnaby, B.C. CHIMP was heavily involved in both. For example, in 2018 CHIMP gave a gift of $74.7 million to Fortius Foundation which funded the construction of The Sports Centre.

Despite more than half a billion ($525 million and $106 million) in tax-receipted donations and gifts reported by The Bromley Charities that funded the start-up of Quest and The Sports Centre, both have faltered and were sold last year. 

In January of 2020, Quest was forced into creditor protection and sold to repay a loan secured by a $30 million mortgage against Quest's land. The mortgage was held by CHIMP and then "gifted" to another Bromley Charity, Vanchorveuve Foundation. When Quest failed to repay the loan, Bromley initiated foreclosure proceedings. Of the $46 million from Quest’s sale, $25.2 million (Pwc Report) was paid to Vanchorverve. Likewise, the sale of The Sport Centre resulted in payment of $26.6 million to Fortius Foundation from the City of Burnaby. Thus, the sale of Quest and Fortius resulted in payments of $51.8 million to The Bromley Charities. 

One of The Bromley Charities, Foundation For Public Good, made large loans to both Quest and Fortius Foundation, financial statements show. In the process, Foundation For Public Good collected $4 million as interest and made “gifts” for a total of $57 million to The Bromley Charities, including $34 million to CHIMP. But not one dollar was given to organizations that are outside the Bromley network.

Over the same years that Quest and The Sports Centre were forced to close, CHIMP paid $40 million (2014-2020) to Chimp Technology Inc., a private company run by John Bromley, Blake Bromley's son, to provide human resources and technology services to CHIMP.  In 2018 alone, CHIMP Foundation paid $12.7 million to the John Bromley's company. That same year, Quest had to shut down its varsity sports program for lack of $300,000 or $400,000 to keep the teams playing.

Since it began, CHIMP received $775 million in donations, it says. That includes $150 million in 2020 alone. With all that money, why couldn't CHIMP save Quest nor The Sports Centre?

Financial statements show that some of the large "gifts" between The Bromley Charities were actually loans, not gifts. In one case, Timothy Foundation, reports seven loans receivable from other Bromley Charities. As of 2020, these loans account for 80 percent of total assets. Evidently, making loans is a large part of what this charity does.

Fortius Foundation advertised that it funded the construction of The Sports Centre with a gift of $23 million, calling it "the largest philanthropic gift in Canadian sports history." But the financial statements for Fortius Foundation clearly show that it began with a loan for $17 million from a related party, not a gift of $23 million.

Two of the main problems that I see with The Bromley Charities are:

1. Some of the large tax-receipted “donations” reported by The Bromley Charities appear to have been loans, not true gifts. For example, financial statements for Fortius Foundation clearly show that the $23 million “gift” reportedly made by Scott Cousens to fund the start-up of Fortius Sport & Health Centre, or a large portion of that “gift,” was actually a loan (more here). Mr. Cousens says he made a $23 million donation, calling it "largest philanthropic gift in Canadian Sports History" but provides no evidence that he actually made that gift. As an example of the lending between The Bromley Charities, consider Timothy Foundation; 80 percent its total assets are accounted for by seven loans and interest receivable on loans to other Bromley Charities.
2. Very large tax-receipted donations have been written off. For example, consider the Stewart & Marilyn Blusson Foundation. Stewart Blusson is said to have donated $100 million to start Quest. The year Quest opened, Blusson Foundation reported $10 535 900 in tax-receipted donations and wrote off precisely the same amount that very same year. A few years later, the same foundation wrote off $119 million and then a further $75 million.

In my opinion, many of The Bromley Charities are "charities" in name only. I'll cite two examples:

1. Angel Philanthropy Foundation – This charity began in 2007. For more than ten years, it was inactive. In 2019, it sprung to life with a tax-receipted donation of $6.4 million. But one year later, none of that remains. Financial statements show that $2.9 million was written off, $20,727 was paid as fees and $3.5 million was gifted to CHIMP. As of 2020, Angel Philanthropy reported zero dollars. Its only asset is $500 as GST receivable.
2. Viva Voce Charitable Foundation – Registered by employees of Blake Bromley, Viva Voce has had revenues of $40 million of which $35 million was gifts from CHIMP. Viva Voce used most of that money to buy life insurance policies. The only charity that Viva Voce has ever funded is CHIMP, which received a non-cash gift of nearly $1.8 million in 2020.

Over the past five years, I have written a long series of detailed letters to Blake Bromley, John Bromley and Scott Cousens in order to share my concerns and ask legitimate questions. Blake and John Bromley have both replied but did not answer my questions. In the absence of answers from them, I wrote to CRA to request a proper audit of CHIMP and a full investigation of The Bromley Charities as a whole. Indeed, CRA has already shut down at least eight of The Bromley Charities but the CRA audits take far too long. The audit of Theanon Foundation and the transactions that it covered had a span of 19 years.

Questions for Josh Vander Vies

Given that Josh Vander Vies, the lawyer who is currently the in-house counsel for CHIMP, is seeking public office, he should answer questions about the charity with which he has been involved for nearly ten years. Specifically:

1. What is Mr. Vander Vies’ response to the Independent Auditor's Report prepared by Deloitte, which states that the accountants were unable to vouch for $193 million of CHIMP’s unlisted securities?
2. Why did CHIMP’s entire board resign in the spring of 2020? Was Mr. Vander Vies involved in any of the activities that led to the resignation of the entire board?
   • CHIMP Corporate Records Signed by Josh Vander Vies (2 pages)
3. What was Mr. Vander Vies’ role at CHIMP in 2018, when CHIMP made a “gift” of  $74,711,535 to Fortius Foundation? Was he CHIMP’s in-house legal counsel at that time?
4. Will Mr. Vander Vies ensure that CHIMP posts the financial statements at its website for the two most recent years? 
5. What was the software license agreement for $1,845,000 that Real Champions Foundation reported when Mr. Vander Vies was on its board of directors in 2015? Why was this asset gifted through a daisy chain of five of The Bromley Charities before it was written off entirely by Mighty Oaks Foundation?
6. Why is there no mention of Mr. Vander Vies’ involvement with CHIMP in the biography for him that is posted at the website of The Liberal Party of Canada?
7. Is CHIMP currently under CRA audit?

Canadian Press Apology to Vivian Krause

On May 28, 2021, Canadian Press published a story under the headline, "'No evidence:' Researcher Behind 'Anti-Alberta' Inquiry Backs Off Assertion. The headline of that story was entirely untrue and the body of the article contained serious inaccuracies.

Canadian Press has apologized without reservation.

For the letter of apology, click here.

Deloitte "Unable to Obtain Sufficient Appropriate Audit Evidence..." $193,037,460

If you've been reading this blog, you'll know that I've been concerned for several years now about the monkey business at the CHIMP Foundation. Turns out, I'm not the only one. In CHIMP's financial statements for 2020, Deloitte issued a Basis for Qualified Opinion.

Deloitte was "unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence supporting the carrying amount of investments in certain unlisted securities with a total carrying value of $193,037,460 as of July 31, 2020." 

I can't help but wonder if this is part of the reason why CHIIMP's entire board resigned and was replaced in late February/early March of 2020.

CHIMP does not provide its 2020 financials at its website so I obtained them from CRA.

To read the redacted statements that were provided to me by CRA, click here.

Tax Returns For The Bromley Charities Involved With Fortius

1. Imladris Foundation (2008-2019)
2. Real Champions Foundation (2010-2015)
3. Pacific Light Foundation (2012-2014)
4. Mighty Oaks Foundation (2012-2019)
5. Glen Lamond Foundation (2003-2014)
6. Pacific Spine Foundation (2014-2020)
7. 4 What Matters Foundation (2006-2014)
8. Delicate Balance Foundation (2010-2019)
9. Foundation for Public Good (2011-2020)
10. Timothy Foundation (2010-2020)
11. Planted Community Foundation (2014-2019)
12. Virtual Vancouver Foundation (2010-2020)
13. Hope Springs Eternal Foundation (2007-2019)
14. Global Charity Fund Foundation (2011-2013)
15. Zawadi Foundation (2012-2020)

House of Commons & Senate of Canada Vivian Krause Testimony (2010-2020)

1. 2010 - December 7 - House of Commons, Natural Resources Committee
2. 2012 - February 9 House of Commons, Natural Resources Committee
3. 2012 - June 12 - Senate Committee on National Finance
4. 2016 - November 1, Senate Committee on National Finance
5. 2018 - October 16, House of Commons Access to Information, Privacy & Ethics
6. 2019 - April 8 - Senate Committee on Energy, The Environment & Natural Resources
7. 2019 - May 7 - House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance
8. 2019 - May 7 - Senate Transport & Communications Committee
9. 2020 - July 20 - House of Commons Finance Committee (WE Charity)

We Charity: U.S. Tax Returns

Here are the U.S. tax returns for We Charity:

• WeCharity 2002, We Charity 2003, We Charity 2004, We Charity 2005, We Charity 2006, We Charity 2007, We Charity 2008, We Charity 2009, We Charity 2011, We Charity 2012, We Charity 2013, 
• We Charity 2014, We Charity 2015, We Charity 2016, We Charity 2017, We Charity 2018, WE Charity 2019 
• For the pages showing grants for $118 million, click here.

Me to WE Foundation: ME to WE 2013, ME to WE 2014, Me to WE 2015, ME to WE 2016, ME to WE 2017, ME to WE 2018

Letters to Blake Bromley, John Bromley & Scott Cousens

1. First e-mail to Blake Bromley & replies from him & CHIMP (April-May2018)
2. e-mail to Blake Bromley & John Bromley RE 2,000 Gifts for $19 or Less (Sept2018)
3. Letter to Blake Bromley RE Monkey Business DRAFT (Oct-Nov2018)
4. e-mail to Blake Bromley RE Chimp 2018 Tax Return (21May2019)
5. Letter to Blake Bromley Monkey Business DRAFT (5Feb-March2020)
6. Letter to Blake Bromley Quest University (21April2020)
7. Letter to John Bromley RE Chimp Tech Inc. (28April2020)
8. Letter to RE Quest Board (30April2020)
9. Letter to John Bromley RE Gifts for $120 Million (5May2020)
10. Letter to John Bromley, cc Blake Bromley RE Eden Glen $10.5 Million (22May2020)
11. e-mail to Blake Bromley & John Bromley RE Saving Quest (18June2020)
12. Letter to Blake Bromley cc John Bromley RE Sale of 240 acre (5Aug2020)
13. Letter to Blake Bromley cc John Bromley RE Sale of 56 Lot  (19Sept2020)
14. Letter to Stewart Blusson& Blake Bromley RE Blusson Foundation (20Sept2020)
15. e-mail to John Bromley, cc Blake Bromley RE Gifts to Faith Organization (20Sept2020)
16. Letter to John Bromley, cc Blake Bromley RE Non-Cash Donation (20Sept2020)
17. Letter to John Bromley, cc Blake Bromley RE Benefic Seattle (21Sept2020)
18. Letter to Blake Bromley & John Bromey RE Quest & Bromley Charities (30Sept2020)
19. e-mail to Blake Bromley & John bromley RE Monkey Business DRAFT (1Oct2020)
20. Letter to Blake Bromley RE Global Charity Fund (21Oct2020)
21. Letter to Scott Cousens & John Bromley RE Fortius  (6Jan2021)
22. Letter to Burnaby Mayor & Council, cc Scott Cousens & John Bromley (15Jan2021)
23. Letter to Burnaby Mayor & Council, cc: Scott Cousens & John Bromley (22Jan2021)
24. Letter to Burnaby Mayor & Council, cc: Scott Cousens & John Bromley (29Jan2020)
25. e-mail to John Bromley RE CHIMP 2020 Tax Return (11&12Feb2020)
26. Letter to Bromley, June 15, 2021 RE: Gifts from Imladris Foundation or $36,983,600
27. Letter to Scott Cousens, July 15, 2021 RE: Charitable Giving by Scott Cousens
28. Letter to John Bromley, Josh Vander Vies & Blake Bromley, September 24, 2021

To Mayor Mike Hurley & The Burnaby City Council RE: Fortius Sports Centre

January 29, 2021

Dear Mayor Hurley & Council,

As we know, just before Christmas, The City of Burnaby announced plans to buy Fortius Sport & Health Centre for $26.6 million. The sale is scheduled to close very soon, on Monday, February 1, 2021.

As I said in my initial letter, two weeks ago, I hope that the sports centre can re-open as soon as possible but I believe that the payment of $26.6 million to Fortius Foundation should be put on hold.

Based on what I'll explain ahead, it seems to me that in purchasing the sports centre, The City of Burnaby faces three issues: 1) The price, 2) Who gets the money, 3) The RCMP file.

Regarding the price, Mayor Hurley has told me that he thinks The City is getting a bargain. The centre is 140,000 square feet and would cost $1,000 per square foot to build, he says. ($1,000 - seems awfully high to me, but that's what the mayor said). At $1,000, that would put the replacement cost at about $140 million. Its easy to see why Council would keen to buy the sports centre for less than a quarter of that but there's more to this purchase than the price.

The current owner of the sports centre is Fortius Foundation, a registered charity.

Promising to help Canadian athletes raise their game, Fortius Foundation opened the sports centre in 2013. Since then, Fortius has hosted an impressive number of teams and events - even pre-season training for the Toronto Raptors.

At the end of December, Fortius Foundation shut down the sports centre, blaming COVID19. But the truth is that Fortius has been in trouble for years.

The $23 Million “Donation” from Scott Cousens

Fortius has long said that it began with a $23 million donation from Scott Cousens, a local mining executive. However, as The Globe and Mail reported with an in-depth investigation by Kathy Tomlinson, this narrative is contradicted by tax returns and financial statements obtained from the Canada Revenue Agency.

Tax returns show that gifts to Fortius from Scott Cousens’ private foundation total $130,000, not $23 million.

Despite a total of $106 million in tax-receipted donations and charitable gifts, Fortius Foundation was still $24 million in debt (as of 2019), and yet the assessed value of the buildings is only $15.7 million. The $106 million includes a "gift" of $74.7 million from Charitable Impact Foundation (“CHIMP”), just two years ago.

In addition to the $106 million in gifts, Fortius Foundation also undertook a total of $130 million in loans. Much of the $130 million appears to have been a refinancing of the original loans, which appear to have been refinanced several times.

As I mentioned in my initial letter, during December I asked Scott Cousens repeatedly about the funding of the sports centre via e-mail, phone and Twitter. I sent a detailed letter sent to him and to John Bromley, CEO of CHIMP. I received no reply so I reported this matter to The Economic Crime Unit of The Burnaby RCMP. They have opened a file (#2021-892).

Fortius Foundation

The second, more difficult issue is who should get the $26.6 million. The salient point here is that Fortius Foundation is not a commercial seller. It is a registered charity.

As I explained in my initial letter, on the basis of my extensive research it is clear to me that Fortius Foundation is part of a massive tax fraud scam involving hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-receipted donations and charitable gifts that are a SHAM. For examples of tax-receipted donations and gifts that I believe are a sham, click here.

The reason that I would characterize these gifts as a sham is because I believe that no real money changed hands. For a gift to be a true gift, there must be an intention on behalf of a donor to benefit the recipient, with a corresponding impoverishment to the donor. Furthermore, I believe that there was no true transfer of property since these gifts are between related parties and were not made without expectation of something in return. For these reasons, I believe that these gifts are sham transactions, paper shuffles conducted in a circuit of charities that operates like multiple pockets in the same pair of pants. 

By law, registered charities are required to operate for purposes that are exclusively charitable. This means entirely, solely and purely charitable. This is the responsibility that charities bear because they can issue tax receipts for substantial tax relief.

The sole purpose of Fortius Foundation was the sports centre. Now that the centre is closed, the foundation should also close because its purpose no longer exists. This is why I believe that The City of Burnaby should not pay as much as $26.6 million to Fortius Foundation.

To see how Fortius got into trouble, we need to look back at how it began.

Tax records show that Fortius was created by a trio of registered charities. The first of the trio, New Dimensions Foundation, reported nearly $18 million in tax-receipted donations (2008 & 2009). That should have been enough to build the sports centre. But instead of using the $18 million for the centre's construction, New Dimensions gave a loan - not a gift - of $17.4 million to the second charity, Fortius Foundation. That loan was secured by a mortgage against the sports centre and was passed on to the third charity, Imladris Foundation.

An important point here is that these three charities are not autonomous. All three were created by Scott Cousens and Blake Bromley, a Vancouver lawyer. This trio must therefore be assessed as a whole. New Dimensions did nothing but receipt the $18 million, hand-off the Fortius loan to Imladris, and promptly shut down. Imladris Foundation is now run solely by Scott Cousens, his spouse and family. CHIMP, which gave Fortius Foundation the "gift" of $74.7 million, is run by Bromley's sons, John and Clif.

Another important point is the date of the loan from New Dimensions to Fortius Foundation. That date is June 1, 2008, before the 2009 financial crisis.

As I reviewed the financial statements for the Fortius charities, one of the surprising things I noticed is that between 2010 and 2018, Scott Cousens’ foundation charged roughly $1 million per year in interest on the loan to Fortius Foundation, a total of $9.6 million. The initial interest rate was 20 percent. That was reduced to 5 per cent pursuant to a CRA audit, tax returns say. The net result of the interest charges, in my view, is that the “donation of debt” was jacked up by $9.6 million.

In 2018, Scott Cousens’ foundation gave CHIMP Foundation a gift of $29 million which appears to be the transfer of the mortgage against the sports centre, and unpaid interest. 

Financial statements show that the construction of the sports centre appears to have been paid for via a long series of loans starting in 2011 with $20 million from Romspen Investment Corporation, based in Ontario. That loan was increased to $26.4 million and followed by $35 million in additional loans from five charities run by Blake Bromley:

- Global Charity Fund: $4 million
- Foundation for Public Good: $12.2 million
- Homestead on the Hill Foundation: $4 million
- Almoner Foundation: $15 million
- Association for the Advancement of Scholarship: $600,000.

In 2018, Fortius Foundation appears to have used the $74.7 million that it received from CHIMP in order to consolidate its debt under a loan from Bank of Montreal. As far as I can tell, the $74.7 million wasn't a true gift of real money, it was a paper shuffle, a re-arrangement of loans.

Important Questions

The most recent publicly available financial statements, for the year 2019, say that Fortius Foundation has a mortgage for $16 million from an unidentified lender (the name is redacted in financial statements provided by the CRA) and a debt of $4 million to a director of the foundation.

Who is the unidentified lender and who is the director owed $4 million? Would they be repaid with public funds? 

A list of further questions was included with my initial letter.

Conclusion

In light of the above, I respectfully suggest that The City of Burnaby finds out how much real money was put into building the sports centre - and by who - and I suggest that The City repay the outstanding loans for the cost of the centre's original construction – and not a cent more.

As for the land, the centre is located on 5.2 acres in Burnaby. It was valued at $3 million when the project began. Now, the assessed value is $12.4 million. There’s nothing to stop Fortius Foundation from giving the land to The City of Burnaby at the original cost. After all, giving is what charities are supposed to do.

I wish you the very best in your service of the people and the taxpayers of Burnaby.

I am available to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Vivian

Fortius Foundation: $130 Million Loans (2008-2019)

Here are pages of financial statements and mortgage documents showing loans to Fortius Foundation for a combined total of more than $130 million. An important point to note is that these loans were not concurrent. Later loans were used to pay off earlier loans.

1. $16 million from an unidentified lender
2. $4 million from a Director of Fortius Foundation
3. $20 million from the Bank of Montreal
4. $500,000 from Telus
5. $26.4 million Romspen Investment Corp.

Loans from The Bromley Charities for a combined total of roughly $65 million:

1. $28.9 million from New Dimensions Foundation/Imadris Foundation
2. $4 million from Global Charity Fund
3. $4 million from Homestead on The Hill Foundation
4. $12.2 million from Foundation for Public Good
5. $15 Million from Almoner Foundation
6. $600,000 from Association for the Advancement of Scholarship