The man who shot and killed another man and woman in Toronto earlier this week thought that the two victims had defrauded his family.
On Wednesday, the wife of the shooter told local authorities this, and it was cross-referenced by the fact that the shooter’s family was suing the two victims after they lost in excess of $1 million CAD in an investment scam.
The male attacker — who has not yet been identified by authorities — died Monday as well at an office space in north Toronto that’s close to a daycare center.
Alisa Pogorelovsky, who is the wife of the alleged shooter — Alan Kats — released a statement through her lawyers that said her husband “could not handle losing our life savings and that is what lead to this tragic event. … I hope someday my family will be able to recover.”
The victims have been identified by police as Samira Yousefi, who was 44 years old, and Arash Missaghi, who is 54 years old.
In court records, there are plenty of details about how Pogorelovsky and her husband sued the man and woman who were killed in this week’s shooting, after they lost about $930,000 in a syndicated mortgage fraud that they alleged.
Those allegations hadn’t been proven in court yet.
Court documents read:
“An aggressive mortgage broker encouraged the plaintiff’s principal to free up capital in the family home to invest in private mortgages with other participants to earn high interest. Once the plaintiff invested the funds, the returns on investments would be paid for long enough to allow the recipients to move the money around and out of reach.”
In 2018, though, Missaghi faced criminal charges for the role he played in a complex mortgage fraud scheme that has been valued at approximately $12.4 million. Police have called that investigation Project Bridle Path.
In that case, police alleged that Missaghi was involved in many fraudulent transactions that netted him about $17 million. That scheme allegedly dated as far back as 2013.
In July of 2021, those charges were withdrawn by the Crown, according to a statement released this week by a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General.
In Pogorelovsky’s statement, she said:
“The events that gave rise to the litigation that we are involved in with Missaghi and Yousefi have devastated and now destroyed our family.”
She added that, after the shooting, she found a note that her husband had written that explained “what he was thinking and why he acted as he did.”
She shared that Kats’ death was “in the hands of” both Yousefi and Missaghi, and two other individuals as well.
According to Pogorelovsky, the note read:
“Stop these criminals from destroying people’s lives.”
Police have said that the shooting that happened on Monday in the North York neighborhood of Toronto occurred at a business that conducts “financial transactions.”
Detective Sergeant Al Bartlett spoke at the scene on Monday, saying that before the shooting happened, an altercation “in relation” to the business had unfolded.
