A North Vancouver mining executive and financier has pleaded guilty to forgery and obstruction of justice involving his mother's residential rental company.
Lenik Manuel Rodriguez, 73, did what he did in order to ensure his aging mother got the care she needed as dementia set in, defence lawyer Tony Paisana told Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Patrick Doherty Dec. 23.
At trial, Rodriguez faced 33 counts of fraud, forgery and using fabricated documents in relation to a dispute between he and his half-siblings over his mother’s care and how money from the company she had controlled, Arias & Associates Properties, should be used to assist her in a care home.
Crown prosecutor Mark Wolf told Doherty the company controlled several rental properties on Keith Road with six tenants.
He pleaded guilt to attempting to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice by filing fraudulently obtained orders of possession from the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) with the Supreme Court of B.C., and committing forgery by creating false residential tenancy agreements, between Nov. 15, 2017 and April 18, 2018.
Rodriguez is listed on LinkedIn as executive chairman of Apache Mining Group, managing director of First Access Financial Group, Inc., president of Rio Grande Mining Company and past president of Aurcana Corporation and Habiterra Building Solutions, Inc.
Doherty heard how Rodriguez had placed his mother in a specialized care home at a cost of $11,000 a month.
However, Wolf said, the siblings did not agree with that decision and Rodriguez was footing the bill alone.
“He committed these acts as a means of assisting his mother,” Wolf said. “He did not benefit.”
And, Paisana said, the siblings were disruptive at the care home, protesting outside and, in one case, causing police to be called.
Wolf said it was in September 2017 that Rodriguez discovered Arias had not paid taxes for some years. Using his power of attorney, he took control of the company and fired the corporate secretary who had been responsible for collecting rents.
The court heard how Rodriguez sent letters, knocked or doors or called on the phone the tenants at the units to tell them they should send rents to the company via him.
However, someone called the secretary who told the tenants to ignore Rodriguez, Wolf said.
Paisana said the tenants were being told Rodriguez's behaviour was a scam.
So, Rodriguez served 10-day notices to end the tenancies.
“The accused then created forged copies of each of the tenants’ leases,” Wolf said, adding some had names, dates of tenancies and rental amounts wrong. He also forged signatures.
In one case, he created a document aimed at a tenant who had moved. Another person was in the unit.
With those documents, Rodriguez was able to get the RTB to grant orders of possession. Those documents were then used in B.C. Supreme Court to get writs of possession.
Then, the bailiffs were called to evict the tenants. One called the Access Pro Bono legal service and managed to get a stay of the eviction.
Wolf said Rodriguez’s actions abused the RTB.
“The system is vulnerable to being misused because the people at the RTB rely on the documents that people are filing being genuine,” Wolf said.
Paisana characterized his client’s behaviour as “misguided and stupid.”
“He took matters into his own hands,” Paisana said. “He’s thrashing about trying to take care of his mother’s care.”
While sentencing will take place in 2023, Wolf asked for an 18-month conditional sentence while Paisana asked for a conditional discharge. The latter said Rodriguez has already suffered damage as a result of the situation. He said a company Rodriguez is involved in was due to have an initial public offering (offer of shares in a private corporation) in 2022. However, due to the guilty plea, he will not be able to serve as a company director, Paisana said.
Paisana also said Rodriguez has resolved the company’s tax problems.
“A conditional discharge is a fit sentence,” he told Doherty.
