Businessman missing as Dutch Canadians out millions

March 27, 2010

David Bruser

Bill Van Ryn, 74, of Georgetown, who worked on the Ford assembly line and built a pest control business, lost $750,000 to the Snoek deals.

TONY BOCK/TORONTO STAR

Ask the former captain of Harry Snoek Jr.’s yacht – gallantly named Ladies First and outfitted with a sauna, flatscreen TVs and catamaran for luxuriating on the Mediterranean – and he will tell you what paid for it all:

“Harry told me he has a huge business in Canada.”

At least 80 elderly Dutch Canadians thought so, too. Seniors like carpenter John Kolkman and retired farmer Gerald Korten, who trusted Snoek with their life savings.

But the money is gone. And so is Harry Snoek, possibly back in the Netherlands or maybe Qatar, a trail of empty promises and despair in his wake.

Promissory notes and court documents obtained as part of a Toronto Star investigation, as well as interviews of investors and business partners, suggest Snoek ran a Ponzi scheme, where early investors are paid off from the contributions of later ones. The RCMP is looking into the case.

By the latest tally of those who have come forward to the Star and who are trying in Ontario courts to recoup their losses, Snoek has absconded with more than $34 million. The total number of affected investors may be as high as 200.

A review of Snoek’s records and assets, prepared by a major accounting firm and obtained by the Star, shows more than $20 million left Canada since 2004, including $6 million for the yacht and $10.8 million to Snoek.

Troubling payment delays and equivocations from Snoek started in 2007, several of the investors say, with Snoek exploiting shared ties to motherland and church to ease anxieties and keep their money just a few months more, and then another few months more.

And now no one can find the man who always had a cell phone at his ear and places to be.

JOHN KOLKMAN arrived from Holland in 1953 only three months married, with nothing but a suitcase and a few pots and pans. Through the years he saved $229,000 as a journeyman carpenter and left it all in Snoek’s hands for safekeeping and investment. When his wife Margaret died in January, Kolkman, 86, had to take out a $6,000 loan to pay for the funeral.

“I am hurt,” he said, sitting in his Bradford home. “But at the moment, I have a bigger loss.”

Snoek’s scheme has also ensnared a Guelph-based charity, the Canadian Christian Education Foundation, which lost $356,000. Snoek’s aunt Toeky in the Netherlands says her nephew won’t return calls and letters to explain what he did with her $250,000.

In February, after decades of hard work and entrusting Snoek with more than $100,000, Gerald Korten, 75, put his farmhouse up for sale.

“I don’t want to be forced off this land,” said Korten, who emigrated from Aalten, Holland when he was 16. “I figured I would live on this money. I call Harry, but can’t get a hold of him.”

Scores of other investors, like 86-year-old retired banker Jim Abell and 81-year-old Marian Celsie, are feeling “helpless and hopeless” and blaming themselves.

“How could I have trusted this guy, as a cautious banker of my age?” said Abell, who recalls some of Snoek’s tales of globetrotting and high finance and wonders why he was not more skeptical.

Celsie, who lost $16,000, is not sure she will ever see her money again. “It’s all I’ve got,” she said, crying. “I thought they were big business. They way it sounded. Property here, property there. Land deals and everything. I’m so devastated.”

Celsie entrusted Snoek Jr. with her savings on the recommendation of two friends. On July 24, 2004, a nervous Celsie sent Snoek Jr. a letter and a cheque post-dated for two days later. She wrote: “I am petrified of losing this little bit of money I have and at my age have no way of accumulating more.”

HARRY SNOEK JR. inherited the name, reputation and land development business from his father.

Like many of the people he solicited, Harry Snoek Sr. left Holland in the early 1950s for Canada, the country that led the Holland liberation during World War II.

In Toronto, he attended the same Christian Reformed Church as Kolkman, who recalled a moment in 1954 when Snoek asked for advice: “He said, ‘Should I go into real estate?’ I said, ‘Sure. A big city can only expand.’ ”

After a stint as a travelling salesman, Snoek built a reputation for land development acumen, first with condos at Yonge and Finch, then a suburban residential project in Brampton. Next, Snoek Sr. – who distributed children’s picture Bibles and was described in a company newsletter as a “staunch Calvinist” – gambled on commercial land in Milton, and after some success spoke as if it were ordained.

“You’ve got to be steady on your course, not easily swayed,” he said in 2000. “Forget all the naysayers who say you’ll lose your shirt.”

The Snoek residence doubled as office, and wife Cathy served coffee. His ad in a local Dutch-language newspaper promised around 8 per cent interest for parcels of land – at least 140 acres – near highways 401 and 25. “Follow the Signs to Milton,” read a promotional poster Snoek Sr. used.

The Dutch Canadians did not part with their money easily. Many had survived the privation of the Depression and Nazi occupation before arriving in Canada with very little.

“Mr. Snoek Senior was always assuring you,” said investor Ed Mesker. “He said, ‘Ed, it is as good as gold.’ I even borrowed money because Snoek paid a higher rate than the bank. I borrowed money from friends. I got my office manager (Jim Abell) involved, who is now 86. Why? Because the Snoeks were so ethical and churchgoing.”

Investors believe Snoek Sr. now lives in a Netherlands nursing home.

Snoek or his company, Harry Snoek Limited, provided promissory notes in return for cash, investors say. Many notes expired after one year, but investors often renewed, keeping the nest egg tucked away while collecting interest cheques.

It was as if Snoek Sr. ran a bank for his trusting creditors.

“Sometimes, when things went bad, he would give people their money back. He always had money on hand,” carpenter John Kolkman said. “Around 1998, I had high dental bills and needed a new car. I asked for $30,000 back. No problem.”

Investor Case Van Ryn of Tottenham, Ont. said: “Every year I got four cheques for interest and it never failed. Until December 2008.”

SOMETIME AROUND 2003, as Snoek Sr. grew infirm with dementia, his son took over, conducting the business as Harry Snoek Limited Partnership.

(Reviews commissioned by investors later found that the Limited Partnership was just one of at least seven Ontario companies connected to Snoek Jr.)

Trusting the Snoek name, many investors stayed with Snoek Jr., continued making deposits and steered new clients his way.

Only months after the transition, Snoek Jr. started spending large amounts of money on luxury items, including a $2.5 million Ferretti yacht, according to yacht broker Stephen Sadosky, who says he sold Snoek the boat.

Snoek Jr., 47, with reddish-blond hair, not only enjoys boats but expensive cars, Isaac Israels paintings and fine watches, according to former business partners and investors.

“He told me he had a Bentley GT,” said Sadosky, who sold two boats to Snoek Jr. Sadosky, based in West Palm Beach, Fla., said Snoek also dabbled in buying and selling art and once used Sadosky’s office to ship an oil painting. A former employee has seen the silver, twin-turbocharged Bentley coupe parked in the garage of Snoek’s home in Vlissingen, Netherlands.

On the website of one of his Canadian companies, Total Developments International, Snoek Jr. trumpeted his “solid understanding of the marketplace.”

After selling his first boat at a slight loss, Snoek bought the 30-metre Ladies First in 2006.

Sadosky said Snoek Jr. convinced him to help start a yacht-building company. “Harry says, ‘Jeez, I’d like to build four or five of these, and flip ’em and make some money.”

The two men travelled the world, from Alabama to China, scouting possible shipyard locations.

They also visited Vlissingen, where Harry showed him the two-floor, seafront condo he just bought for his parents. “It was a nice place on the water, ocean-view, on the entrance to the waterway to Antwerp,” Sadosky recalled.

A man with an “everything is hunky-dory” smile, Snoek talked energetically of world markets and impending deals in far-flung lands.

“His stories became almost euphoric,” said investor Ed Mesker, who winters in Florida. “He always had many big clients who would almost buy all the land in Milton.” Mesker said that he started asking for his money in 2007. He said Snoek was in Florida in May of 2008 and on the 19th took him to dinner at Charley’s Crab to watch the sun set on the Intercoastal Waterway.

Abell, the retired banker who works as bookkeeper for Mesker, and who invested with Snoek at Mesker’s suggestion, was at the dinner, too.

“Harry excused himself for the delay, he had been so busy with many lucrative deals from land and superyacht sales,” Abell recalled. “He had bought a rubber factory, had a DVD business, ... dealt in watches and boasted about his multi-million dollar art collection, ... was taken on a diving session arranged by the general of the navy in Egypt, had business in the Isle of Mann and Turkey and had sold two yachts. ‘My business is like a snowball effect,’ Harry said. ‘All kind of lucrative ventures are coming my way.’ ”

Mesker (who has since dedicated much of his time to finding Snoek and his money) was impressed that day, feeling “like a kid who hasn’t graduated from kindergarten.”

Abell and Mesker say Snoek committed to meeting with them in July 2008 to pay back all loans.

The three met in a North York Tim Hortons, Snoek’s chirping cell phone constantly interrupting. Snoek said if they waited two months the men would be “swimming in money.”

“Harry put his hand on my shoulder,” Abell recalled. “He said: ‘You know, sir, that you can trust the Snoek blood.’ ”

Several investors who have known the Snoek family for decades see irony in Snoek Jr.’s claim to the bloodline because they say he was adopted.

By early August, investors heard rumours that Snoek was in trouble. Anxious for their money, Arie Mast, 58, of Port Perry went with his father Eliza, also an investor, to Snoek’s Mississauga office. Snoek, wearing a light-coloured suit, sat behind a desk, a Bible resting on the top right corner.

He picked it up with one hand, placed his other on the cover. He said, “God as my witness, I will give you the money,’ ” Arie Mast recalled, saying Snoek asked the Masts to wait a few more weeks, until after a “big deal” closed. “Being the Christian he is, we trusted him.”

During the meeting, Snoek showed Eliza what was purported to be a $6 million offer for a property. In a re-assuring show of bravado, Snoek said he would not accept less than $10 million and was rejecting the offer.

Two weeks later, on August 15, 2008, Snoek emailed an investor who had asked for loan repayment. Snoek blamed his delayed response on “travelling extensively” but said that two impending “deals” would put him in the money - $120 million – by the middle of September.

Meanwhile, south of the border, Sadosky the yacht broker had already backed away from the would-be shipbuilder. Snoek was scatter-brained, Sadosky said, and inspired little confidence.

“DEAR INVESTORS,” the Dec. 4, 2008, letter started, and after an assurance of the business’s “solid position,” then a brief mention of the global “credit crunch” and “economic condition,” Snoek Jr. finally got to the ominous point: “The Limited Partnership has suspended interest and principal payments” while accruing interest on the promissory notes.

Panicky investors tried contacting Snoek.

“He was supposed to come back to Canada between Christmas (2008) and New Years but that never materialized,” said Bill Van Rijn, 74, a Georgetown resident who invested $750,000.

Van Rijn, who worked on the Ford assembly line while building his pest control business, went to Snoek’s Mississauga office because he needed money for a unit in a seniors home. An assistant got Snoek on the telephone. “Don’t worry, Bill,” Snoek told Van Ryn. “I will transfer some funds into your account.” The funds never arrived.

On Jan. 20, 2009, another letter.

“We have parties that have shown interest in our land,” Snoek Jr. wrote. “We are retaining Grant Thornton Limited, an independent accounting firm to review our books and records in order to provide you with an unbiased report of our financial affairs.”

But Snoek never paid Grant Thornton a retainer, the Star confirmed, and the audit was never done.

Then Snoek told several investors he would make himself available for a week of meetings in June. After only one day, June 8th, he left, saying business in London and Turkey was calling but that he would return in several days. None of the investors interviewed by the Star has seen him since.

Yacht broker Stephen Sadosky has. “I ran in to him at the Istanbul airport. He was standing right behind me in line. He said, ‘I am over here trying to start a yard building yachts.’ He was cordial, but he looked nervous.”

Phillip Brandligt, the naval architect Snoek brought on board his Holland Superyachts venture, told the Star the company never built a single boat and went bankrupt six months ago.

Meanwhile, as part of a lawsuit filed in Brantford, investors persuaded a judge to appoint a receiver, which is combing through Snoek company files. The receiver may try to sell Snoek properties in Milton and spread the proceeds to investors. But some of those closely watching the case believe the land will fetch only a fraction of what Snoek owes.

In a response to the lawsuit, Snoek claims the plaintiffs “were aware, that in order to repay them, the Defendants would require either a new investor to replace them, or sale of a piece of development land.”

“Harry doesn’t know what it’s like to live on just fuel and food,” said investor Case Van Ryn, born in 1929. “I remember the day the Germans came in, the bombs on Rotterdam. We stole everything we could, like a loaf of bread, from the Germans. A person who is 47, what do they know? They think they own the world. A guy like that, he thought he could have everything.”

A week ago, after numerous attempts to reach Snoek Jr., the Star received an email from just4ulegal@hotmail.com, with the subject line: “The story of Mr. Harry Snoek Jr.” In the email, a man claiming to be Snoek’s lawyer said his client would like to tell his story but not right away. Without explaining the reason, the lawyer asked the newspaper to wait. The Star has yet to hear from Mr. Snoek.