The tenuous hope of quick financial compensation that hundreds of inventors deceived by fraudsters Christian Varin were clinging to has just vanished into thin air. A suspicious fire on Tuesday damaged a luxury building in Shefford that the courts had seized from the charlatan and whose upcoming sale was intended to partially compensate the victims, La Presse has learned.
Published at 1:22 am. Updated at 5:00 am.
The story so far
- Christian Varin and his bogus organization, the Fédération des inventors du Québec, have defrauded nearly 500 inventors since 2014 by tricking them into believing he would receive a patent for their invention.
- The fraudster, who had “neither the ability nor the ability” to do so, was found guilty of fraud in January 2022. He is serving a five-year prison sentence.
- The stolen money was used to build the Inventors’ Pavilion, a luxury building in Shefford that was seized as part of a class action to compensate victims.
- The building was the target of a suspicious fire this week while a promise to buy property was being signed.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) confirms that on Wednesday fire technicians were dispatched to a “suspicious” fire that had damaged this building, seized by the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) since January 2022. Sniffer dogs were on site on Thursday. Significant damage was found to the roof and rear façade of the building, whose windows were covered with posters indicating that the building had been seized. “Elements found on site indicate that the fire was caused by criminal hand,” confirmed Agent Louis-Philippe Couture, spokesman for the SQ.
“Our investigators will investigate any circumstances that may have led a person to set a fire,” he added.
“The fire spread from the outside in,” explains Shefford Fire Safety Department Director Luc Couture.
Since 2014, Christian Varin and his sham organization, the Fédération des inventors du Québec, have stolen nearly $3 million from Quebec inventors because the man tricked them into believing he would obtain a patent for them in order to market their creations. The 66-year-old man, whom Judge Alexandre Dalmau described as a compulsive liar, has never completed a single trial. He was sentenced to five years in prison in September 2022 and has been serving a sentence in an institution in Laval since then.
Between $1.3 million and $1.4 million of the amounts looted from his victims were used to build the “Inventors’ Pavilion,” a luxurious 19-room building with an indoor pool and a conference room that Varin had built on land in Shefford , which belong to his partner.
Believing that it was the result of a crime, the DPCP seized the building last January and reached an agreement with a group of lawyers representing several victims in a class action lawsuit, as well as with Varin’s attorney the proceeds from the sale will be returned to you.
The building, which is listed for sale at 1.9 million, was recently purchased by a Sherbrooke-area buyer for an undisclosed amount. According to our information, the sale should be formalized before the notary in the coming days. The victim compensation protocol, which called for the delivery of about $900,000 to the defrauded inventors and the payment of $100,000 in fees to Christian Varin’s lawyer, Me Normand Haché, was scheduled to be presented to the court this week.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Christian Varin, in 2020
But due to the suspicious fire, the sale was suddenly canceled, La Presse learned. The DPCP declined to comment on our information as the matter is the subject of a police investigation.
Questions about insurance
The freeze order issued by the court at the DPCP’s request last January forced Varin and his partner Sylvain Riendeau to “adequately insure the building” while they awaited the sale. However, according to a person familiar with the matter, this clause was not included in the confiscation order that followed the lockdown order and the DPCP would not have insured the building. The DPCP did not respond to our specific questions on this issue.
The damage caused by the flames could be tens of thousands of dollars, making resale much more difficult.
“I would dare to hope that the DPCP has insured the building,” says lawyer Vincent Langlois, who represents a dozen defrauded inventors.
Patrick Marcotte, inventor of a smart remote starter and one of Varin’s many victims, expected to receive between $10,000 and $12,000 in compensation after the sale was completed. “This is disgusting! Completely disheartening. “Because it’s been like this for so many years, we’re starting to lose hope,” he says on the phone.
The fire sent shockwaves through the many lawyers involved in this judicial saga since 2017. “It worries me and it’s annoying.” The customer [Christian Varin] is still in prison,” comments Me Normand Haché, Varin’s lawyer, to whom the fraudster owed $174,000 in fees for the 38 cases in which he represented him. As part of an agreement with the DPCP, his fees were reduced to $100,000. “This fire will not bring more money to the victims. This is an unfortunate turn of events. I’m disappointed,” the lawyer added.
“There have been so many twists and turns in this story that we would have hoped for a quieter ending than this, which would inevitably reduce the value of the only asset that can be seized.” [dédommager] the victims,” lamented lawyer Vincent Langlois.