An entrepreneur with a purported familial link to the Rothschild family has allegedly defrauded a Canadian investor of more than $7million USD in an elaborate financial scheme, according to a lawsuit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
The lawsuit alleges that Steven de Koenigswarter, who the suit claims is a businessman based in the Netherlands, convinced an Ontario-based plaintiff that his relationship to the banking dynasty could grant access to high-yield financial products with low risk.
According to the claim filed in court, which has not been proven, De Koenigswarter, acting with business partner Luc Georges de Clerck, CEO of Venator International, claimed that institutional short-term bonds, called Standby Letters of Credit (SBLCs) could be acquired at a discount on face value.
The lawsuit further alleges that de Koenigswarter advised the plaintiff that he was related to the Rothschilds through his maternal grandmother Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild, and advised that The de Koenigswarter Family Trust purportedly had access to high-value financial markets due to its connection to the Rothschild family.
According to the Defendants’ representations, according to allegations made in the lawsuit, the SBLCs were to be sold for a profit of between 1 and 2%, with the transaction repeated multiple times per week to yield an expected return in excess of 60% a month.
The Plaintiffs allege that they wired funds totalling $7,599,881.92 to De Koenigswarter in the belief that the Defendants including De Koenigswarter had access to a lucrative scheme normally reserved for financial elites.
The Plaintiff alleges however that the sums wired by the Plaintiffs were redirected by De Koenigswarter, in amounts ranging from $100,000.00 to $460,000.00, to various subsidiaries of The Health Factory, a natural health products company owned by De Koenigswarter. Additionally, based on information appearing on the internet that has not been verified, the Health Factory has apparently faced numerous investigations by authorities for misinformation.
In addition to the return of their funds, the plaintiffs seek an additional $2million USD in damages.
According to publicly available information, no defence has been filed by the defendants although they have been served with the claim. No funds have been recovered by the Plaintiff. The claims have not been proven in court and no adjudication has been made.
