OTTAWA – A convicted fraudster who operated a property development company based in Iroquois will be sentenced in an Ottawa court in late-April.
Seventy-four year old Edouard Bonamie pleaded guilty to four charges relating to an international yacht fraud scheme in June 2022. He was charged in December 2021 after an international investigation conducted by the Ottawa Police Service and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Additional charges were laid in May 2022.
In all, he faced 11 charges, and he pleaded guilty to four – including three counts of fraud over $5,000 and one count of uttering a forged document.
Bonamie appeared in the Ontario Court of Justice in Ottawa on February 17, where a date was set (April 21) for sentencing. He has been out on bail since pleading guilty last year. The terms of his release are subject to a Section 517 publication ban under the Criminal Code of Canada. Details of his guilty plea are also subject to the same publication ban. Publication bans under Section 517 are temporary until an accused is discharged or a trial is completed.
At the time of his arrest in 2021, the OPS associated Bonamie with the South Dundas Waterfront Development Corporation, a company which owned several properties in South Dundas. These included a residential property on County Road 2 east of Doran Creek and a large lot at the corner of Lakeshore Drive and Dr. Stevens Drive. At least two South Dundas properties were listed for sale in recent months.
A property development project known as Deerbourne Estates was marketed by the SDWDC in Brockville. The SDWDC and the Deerbourne Estates Corporation are named as co-defendants in a $2 million civil lawsuit before the Superior Court of Justice in Brockville. The lawsuit was filed by two companies, Adler Farms Inc. and a London, Ontario-based numbered corporation – 1803275 Ontario Limited.
According to police, Bonamie is known by several aliases including Nicholas Bonamy, Nicholas Bomamy, Nicholas Grimaldi, and Nicholas Ives.
Prior to moving to South Dundas, Bonamie served four years in prison relating to a 2006 guilty plea for fraud and forgery charges. Those charges involved a genomics company in Saskatchewan. According to the Regina Leader-Post at the time of his 2006 guilty plea, Bonamie’s criminal record showed more than 60 convictions – primarily for fraud and forgery – dating back to the early-1970s.