NS Mass Shooting more Investigation Twitter handle CCFR
An inquiry into Nova Scotia mass killer, Gabriel Wortman’s 2020 murders has reportedly found that he used illegitimate or suspicious means to collect cash and enjoy a lifestyle well beyond his reported $40,000 annual income.
Despite the revelation that he withdrew $475,000 in cash from a Brink’s office shortly before his rampage, the inquiry says in a document published Tuesday, that no evidence could be found about the gunman’s involvement in organized crime or being a police informant.
Joe Morgado, senior manager for corporate security at CIBC was initially concerned about Wortman’s ash withdrawal request of $475,000, but learned from email correspondence that he understood that Wortman was concerned that the banking system is going to collapse due to the pandemic.
The RCMP also denied Wortman ever worked as an informant, and in a separate report for the inquiry, investigator Dwayne King concluded the $475,000 withdrawal was not payment for informant work.
An examination of the newly released summary of evidence known as a foundational document unveiled that Gabriel Wortman had schemes to enrich himself and his habit to hide large sums of cash, including $705,000 found buried under the deck at his Portapique, N.S., property.
The lavish spending of the gunman, who killed 22 people over 13 hours on April 18-19, 2020 before being shot by police, was out of step with his “modest reported annual income and other visible sources of revenue,” reads the document. “While there are no definitive answers about the sources of all of his income, there is a clear pattern of misdealing.”
Lisa Banfield, the killer’s common-law spouse told the inquiry that he never claimed his earnings from his denture business and added that to her knowledge, he didn’t have another source of income.
Wortman instructed Banfield who worked in his Dartmouth denture clinic to request that patients make cheques for dentures out to Wortman instead of his business.
It was Banfield who usually accepted payments from patients lot of who paid in cash and at the end of the day, she would bring the cash upstairs to Wortman at their residence above the clinic. If patients paid by cheque, she would cash them and bring him the money.
According to a Financial Accounting Management Group report between 2012 and 2019 the gunman’s average annual income from Atlantic Denture Clinic, which he owned, was $39,916 while Banfield’s reported annual income for her work at the clinic was $15,288.
The report also found that during this period, Wortman received an additional $232,900 in his personal accounts and another $96,755 in a joint account he shared with Banfield, though it doesn’t indicate the source of the money.
A report commissioned by the inquiry found that both Banfield and the gunman spent beyond their reported incomes.
From December 2017 to April 2020 Wortman’s accounts had combined deposits of about $865,600 and combined withdrawals of more than $1.16 million.
The document contains rumors of Wortman’s involvement with drug trafficking as he and Banfield often traveled to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.
Banfield told the inquiry she was often by herself “all day” on vacation, and that she did not see any evidence of drug trafficking or other criminal activity while traveling.
Although there was one piece of evidence that points to possible involvement in selling or purchasing large amounts of cannabis, Banfield told investigators that she never saw drugs at their properties and that Wortman chose to become a denturist because he believed that would be a good way to earn a lot of money.
NovaScotiamasskiller; #GabrielWortman; #accumulatecash; #illegitimateMeans
