Dunkerley, a Toronto businessman who owned several accounting and real estate investment firms, had been part of the couple’s lives for almost a decade. They had socialized with each other’s families and celebrated birthdays and Christmas together.

The connection ran deep. During the five years leading to the funeral, Hadley and Uschak had handed over approximately $740,000 — a sum drawn from the proceeds of selling their home when they downsized and their RRSP accounts. The couple were told the funds were invested in properties in Owen Sound, Ont., and the double-digit returns on their statements convinced Hadley she had built a solid retirement fund.

Uschak, who worked in construction project management, died suddenly in early 2022, just two months after receiving a lung cancer diagnosis. During his final months, he was comforted by the thought that his wife would be “well looked after,” Hadley said. But just a year and a half after his death, the $1,900 in monthly investment returns they had been receiving for years stopped. She said Dunkerley blamed it on the housing market downturn and promised repayment once new investors bought her shares.

It wasn’t until she learned of more than 20 lawsuits filed against Dunkerley in 2024 — claims worth millions, involving banks, mortgage lenders and investors — that the reality set in: her life savings might be gone forever.

“How dare you come to the funeral knowing that I was never going to see any money?” she said. “We just trusted him so much.”

Hadley is one of dozens of investors who have not received their principal and interest repayments from Dunkerley’s companies.

So far, the Commission has collected evidence from 95 investors and found that at least $5.5 million was invested in a private lending program, and $8 million in a growth fund.

Dunkerley and Harvey denied any wrongdoing in emails to the Star.

Dunkerley wrote that his company is a real estate limited partnership that does not require registration with the OSC, and said he expects the Commission to find no wrongdoing in its investigation.

Toronto Police said they are investigating a 2025 report they received involving BG Wealth Group.

Meanwhile, without her monthly investment returns, Hadley was unable to pay for a line of credit on her home in Springwater, Ont., and eventually sold the house and moved into her son’s basement.

“I don’t know how he could have done this,” said Hadley. She wants to forgive him, but she’s struggling. “I had to say to myself: I don’t think he started like this.”

Hadley first crossed paths with Dunkerley at a networking event in 2014. He was running a bookkeeping firm and an investment company in Brampton under the Blackthorn brand, later rebranded as BG.

What began as a casual introduction soon grew into a friendship. Dunkerley invited Hadley to company gatherings, where he doled out tax and investing tips between tales of his Detroit house-flipping ventures — snapping up rundown properties on the cheap, renovating them and renting them out.

In 2017, Hadley began investing in a mortgage fund that promised a 10 per cent guaranteed annual return. Later, she invested in what Dunkerley described as an abandoned apartment in Detroit.

“I thought that he was just charming and genuine, that he was looking out for our interests, very much,” Hadley said.

In 2019, Dunkerley shifted his focus to Owen Sound, a city about two hours north of Toronto, and acquired five mixed-use commercial and residential properties there.

BG Wealth’s now-defunct website boasted success stories of turning modest spaces into homes that generated more income, such as two one-bedroom units that were renovated to raise rents from $550 and $750 to $1,100 each.

Six investors the Star spoke to said their funds were directed into the Owen Sound properties, with some saying they invested through promissory notes guaranteed by Dunkerley, offering a 16 per cent annualized return. Most had their taxes handled by the BG accounting firm and were steered by their accountant, who worked for Dunkerley, toward the firm’s investment arm.

Along with his interest in real estate, Dunkerley purchased the garden glove brand Dig It Apparel in 2016. The brand was originally founded by Claudia Harvey, who later became Dunkerley’s business partner, and Wendy Johannson. The pair appeared on CBC’s Dragon’s Den in 2010 and secured a $50,000 investment from Kevin O’Leary.

Harvey remained CEO of Dig It, and in 2019, she was listed as a director of BG Wealth Group, presenting herself as the company’s president. Their partnership extended across both business ventures and a shared home. Dunkerley listed Harvey as his spouse in a statement to the Bank of Montreal in 2023, according to an OSC affidavit.

In 2021, Hadley and her late husband were invited to a $6 million, 6,500-square-foot Etobicoke mansion bought by Dunkerley and Harvey, where she was dazzled by a closet overflowing with designer handbags, an entertainment room, and a pool overlooking the Humber River.

The same year, Hadley downsized from Brampton and relocated to Springwater. She turned over the proceeds from her home sale, along with $300,000 borrowed from line of credit secured against her new property, to Dunkerley to invest in Owen Sound projects.

“They were living a very lavish life using our money,” said Hadley. “We felt our investments must be doing well.”

In July 2023, Joanne Gullusci, 73, a retired CIBC employee, said she received a call from Dunkerley, who offered to review her investments, which included about $400,000 she had handed over since 2012.

They met at a Tim Hortons in Brampton, where Gullusci confided in Dunkerley that she was becoming anxious because her husband’s Parkinson’s disease was getting worse and he might need to move to a nursing home.

“He showed me I had over $700,000, supposedly, (and said) oh, no, you’re in great shape. You don’t have to worry,” said Gullusci, who was receiving $2,200 a month in distributions at the time.

“So stupidly, I invested my last $100,000.”

Five months later, Gullusci noticed her December distributions hadn’t arrived. She called and emailed, and was told there were technical glitches and that the money would be coming — but it never did.

In 2024, BG Wealth investors began connecting in a Facebook group that has since grown to over 80 members, finding common ground in their struggle to recoup investments held by Dunkerley.

BG Wealth ceased making payments to many investors in November 2023, but the OSC said it found that the company continued to promote and sell securities to new investors, claiming it had “strong” cash flows and could deliver stable, regular returns.

Court documents reviewed by the Star portray a complete collapse of Dunkerley’s empire in 2024. Dig It Apparel filed for bankruptcy in April. Lenders, including Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal, filed a number of lawsuits against Dunkerley and Harvey for defaults, and the pair lost their Etobicoke mansion to a mortgage lender. 

The Ontario Superior Court has entered default judgments in favour of at least three groups of investors who sued Dunkerley and his companies that year, two of which told the Star they recovered not a dime.

A Star analysis found that all five Owen Sound properties marketed on the BG Wealth website — where investors believed their money was going — had multiple mortgages, some totalling four times the original purchase price.

In 2024, Dunkerley sold one property for $1.8 million, while the remaining four were seized by court-appointed receivers due to loan defaults by Dunkerley’s companies. The Star also identified four additional Dunkerley-related properties outside Owen Sound that were either sold through power of sale or placed into receivership in 2024.

“He always said you can’t lose with bricks and mortar,” said Hadley. “Why are there mortgages on those properties when you’ve got all these millions of dollars you took in (from investors)?”

In January 2025, Hadley and some 20 investors filed a joint lawsuit against Dunkerley and Harvey, alleging they orchestrated a “Ponzi scheme” by misappropriating investment funds intended for real estate projects for unknown purposes.

They were unable to serve Dunkerley, whose whereabouts is still unknown.

Several investors interviewed by the Star said they would never have sent funds to Dunkerley had they known there was a risk of fraud. A court affidavit obtained by the Star showed that the OSC spotted red flags at least seven years ago, yet did not alert the public until 2025.

In 2019, the OSC issued a warning letter to Dunkerley, noting that as a director of Blackthorn Investment Group, he engaged in activities requiring registration and appeared to distribute securities that did not comply with prospectus requirements.

“We consider that your conduct may not be in the public interest,” wrote the OSC. “At this time, rather than starting an enforcement action against you, we believe that this warning letter will adequately protect Ontario’s capital markets.”

The letter was not made public on its website at the time.

When the Star asked the OSC about the circumstances for issuing the warning, it said it could not discuss details of an active case, as this could jeopardize the investigation’s integrity.

“The problem is, there are just so many of these frauds going on. To say that a regulator should or shouldn’t have caught something, it’s hard to be that critical,” said David Milosevic, the lawyer representing Hadley and her investor peers.

Milosevic said blaming only the OSC oversimplifies a systemic problem, as lenient penalties at both federal and provincial levels have made Canada a global hub for scammers.

In a statement to the Star, Dunkerley denied misusing investors’ funds and refuted allegations of fraud. 

He said he stopped payouts because rising interest rates and economic conditions put pressure on real estate portfolios, but he promised to resume distributions when the economy recovers.

“We still have the assets to pay obligations,” wrote Dunkerley.

Dunkerley added that Harvey was “wrongly accused” by the OSC of being connected to the BG companies, claiming she was merely a business strategist who assisted him with marketing. He did not respond to the Star’s questions about the nature of his assets, the lawsuits he is facing, or where he is located right now.

Clarke Tedesco, the lawyer representing Harvey, said in a statement that Harvey’s interests aligned with investors, and she suffered significant personal losses from her investments in BG Wealth Group.

“Ms. Harvey denies any wrongdoing or, in particular, any misuse of investor funds,” Tedesco wrote, adding his client declined to be interviewed. 

In January, the OSC applied to the Capital Market Tribunals for an extension of the temporary order ceasing operations of BG entities until Aug. 6, as it has yet to complete the investigation due to “BG Wealth Group’s deficient productions to the Commission” and “the commingling of funds” in the company’s bank accounts. 

Gullusci’s husband, who has Parkinson’s, is now in a long-term-care home. After investing all her savings with Dunkerley, Gullusci said she’s running out of money and may have to take out a reverse mortgage on her home to pay the bills.

She suffered a mild heart attack in December 2024, was diagnosed with four blocked arteries, and had stents inserted.

Gullusci said she can’t understand how Dunkerley could know about her husband’s suffering, but still “take advantage” of it, convincing her to invest her last savings in 2023. 

“It’s just been a nightmare. I literally have nothing. He took every cent,” said Gullusci, adding that at this point she has lost hope of getting her money back.

“My parents always told me, you never put all your eggs in one basket. This is what I’m killing myself for because I should have known better,” she said.

Hadley, who is now living in her son’s basement, said she is under constant stress. She has trouble sleeping and had two mini strokes last year.

She once dreamed of travelling with her late husband to Disneyland and leaving her children an inheritance from her investments, but that dream has been shattered.

She said her faith and her family’s support are the only things that keep her going.

“If I could talk to Craig, I would just tell him that I pray for him,” she said. “I pray that you could make this right, that you could just redeem yourself.”