MONTREAL - A woman who says she was taken advantage of by convicted fraudster Earl Jones is suing a notary and an insurance firm.
Electa McMaster says the fraudulent financial planner convinced her to give him a power of attorney over her affairs, then abused that trust to mortgage her house without her knowledge.
Now McMaster is suing the notary involved in the case, and the insurance firm that handled the mortgage, in a big to save her home.
"There were signatures done, I never saw it," said McMaster. "They were all, what do you call it, fraud."
In court McMaster's attorney argued that Jones went to two other financial institutions in an attempt to get a mortgage on her property, but that neither of those companies awarded the loan.
Her lawyer argues that Industrial Alliance handed Jones a $367,000 mortgage on a property worth more than $560,000, without doing due diligence.
McMaster said the notary, Linda Frazer in the case should have taken more care, and at the very least should have contacted her.
"She never double-checked. I've never seen her before. This was the first time," said McMaster while in the courthouse.
McMaster says she never saw a penny of the mortgage taken out in her name and that she should not be responsible for paying back the mortgage.
Lawyers for Industrial Alliance and the notary made their closing arguments on Wednesday afternoon.
McMaster's civil lawsuit was the first against a financial institution in relation to the Jones scandal, 12 to 20 other lawsuits are now pending. A class-action lawsuit has been filed by 128 victims of Jones, seeking $40 million from the Royal Bank.
