Pressure builds on former MP Raj Grewal amid fraud allegations

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The society went further recently, asking the Ontario Superior Court for permission to take over all accounts, client files and safe-deposit boxes of RSG Law, Grewal and Davinder Khattra, the junior colleague now listed as the firm’s owner. The regulator earlier suspended Khattra’s licence.

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The society notes that various plaintiffs name Grewal and Khattra in legal actions related to “the alleged misappropriation of at least $17 million.” Today, $340,303 remains in RSG Law’s accounts, its notice of application says.

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The regulator “has a statutory duty to protect the public interest and advance the cause of justice and rule of law,” it said in a notice of application asking to be made a trustee of the firm.

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Peel Regional Police had until recently stayed silent about the affair. But last Friday the force issued a news release confirming that it’s investigating “multiple” allegations of fraud and breach of trust involving lawyers at RSG Law.

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Detectives believe there are additional victims who have not yet come forward, the release said, asking that people contact police if they’ve suffered a financial loss or have information relevant to the cases.

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It’s too early in the investigation to discuss potential charges, Peel spokeswoman Const. Laurie McCann said Tuesday.

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Father-in-law Kasal alleges that, unbeknownst to him, Grewal and associates used the in-laws’ names and companies to fraudulently garner millions in loans.

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Kasal is named as a co-defendant in at least two lawsuits dealing with mortgages taken out by RSG Law on properties he owned. The money was supposed to pay off previous loans as part of refinancings, but the lawyers never cleared the earlier debt or removed those loans from the properties’ title, alleges one of the suits, launched by the National Bank and others. The “funds are unaccounted for and appear to have been misappropriated by the defendants,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Frederick Myers said in a June decision.

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In the affidavit he swore on Sept. 25, father-in-law Kasal says he knew nothing of the mortgages, and received none of the borrowed money.

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He alleged the electronic signatures on the mortgage documents that purport to be his were not his, and one in ink that claims to be that of his wife — who had no involvement with the properties — is what he called a “clear forgery.” Evidence indicates that Grewal was behind the allegedly bogus mortgage papers, he charges in the affidavit.

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Another case that named Kasal as a co-defendant involves $107 million lent on properties that he and others owned, the lenders alleging that the mortgages were not properly secured or insured and some of the funds re-directed for the RSG lawyers’ “own purposes.”

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In legal action he filed late last month Kasal again said he had no knowledge of the mortgages and cross-sued his son-in-law, Khattra and RSG Law, demanding they pay $1 million in damages for “negligent and/or fraudulent misrepresentation.”

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