A suspended lawyer linked to a multimillion-dollar fraud investigation conducted by Hamilton police is now accused of criminal activity by the Law Society of Ontario.
Girolamo (Gerry) Falletta, a personal injury lawyer connected to nearly $3.5 million missing from trust funds, is implicated in having “knowingly assisted in, encouraged, or otherwise failed to prevent dishonesty, fraud, crime, or illegal conduct by participating in fraudulent investment schemes,” according to a notice of application filed by the Law Society of Ontario, which governs the province’s lawyers and paralegals. The activity is alleged to have occurred between March 11 and Dec. 5, 2022.
Falletta was the subject of a Hamilton Spectator investigation into allegations by a St. Catharines business tycoon that his $1.5 million investment disappeared from the lawyer’s trust fund.
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When that story was published in July 2023, the law society had already issued an “interlocutory suspension” of Falletta’s licence while it carried out a full investigation. The emergency suspension was put in place for an unspecified period of time because Falletta posed a “significant risk” to anyone who deposited money with him, the law society said.
At that time, Hamilton police were refusing to investigate.
However, immediately after The Spectator’s story was published, the Hamilton police major fraud unit launched an investigation into the missing trust fund money. Police say they “can confirm that detectives are actively investigating the case and that the investigation remains ongoing.”
“His father was ill and receiving treatment in Bangladesh,” investigators told The Spectator recently. “Unknown if Huq went there.”
A third man connected to the scheme, disgraced Hamilton family lawyer Robert Otto, has been disbarred.
In June 2022, land developer Arthur Ellis was asked by Otto, who had handled several of his divorces, if he’d like to make some guaranteed money quickly.
If Ellis gave Falletta $1.5 million for 21 days — to be lent to Huq as collateral for an Ontario government loan he was applying for to aid his trucking business — he would get the principal plus $150,000 back. The money was never to leave Falletta’s trust fund.
The grant application, The Spectator learned, was bogus.
St. Catharines businessman Arthur Ellis made a $1.5-million investment which disappeared from his lawyer’s trust fund.
Bob Tymczyszyn St. Catharines Standard file photo
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And Huq and Falletta appeared to be personal friends. The Spectator has viewed a photo posted on social media of Falletta and Huq taken together at a Toronto Maple Leafs game at Scotiabank Arena on April 9, 2022.
Ellis wrote a cheque and, although he was paid his $150,000 “fee,” he never saw the rest of his money again. That $1.5 million had been promised to fund the expansion of a women’s shelter in St. Catharines.
Falletta told the Law Society of Ontario at his interlocutory hearing that he was tricked into repaying the money to a mystery man who showed up at his office at Centennial Law Group, where he was a partner.
Yet Falletta never reported the missing money to police.
Centennial Law Group has had its own troubles. In 2018, a man was convicted of arson after the law office burned to the ground, but a motive was never uncovered by police. And just last month Centennial was the target of a cyberattack by a ransomware gang called Medusa. Data was stolen, but partner Philip Kuca said it wasn’t sensitive and was hacked from an old computer that he simply unplugged. However, a Spectator investigation on the dark web found leaked data from the law group, including photos of driver’s licences and passports, a photo of a cheque for hundreds of thousands of dollars with the firm’s banking information printed on it and a letter detailing a recent property sale by the firm.
Ellis, unable to get police interested in investigating his missing money, launched a civil suit against Falletta and won. The lawyer — who lives in Ancaster and boasted to Ellis about owning a Lamborghini and a Ferrari — has defied a court order to repay the money.
Last November, Falletta filed a motion to vary the terms of his suspension, to allow him to continue to practice law under the supervision of another Hamilton lawyer, Robin McCourt.
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That motion was later withdrawn by Falletta.
On March 1, the law society filed its application for a hearing, detailing seven allegations against Falletta, including the accusation of criminal conduct and:
Three instances of trust account money belonging to three different people being withdrawn by Falletta “for the benefit of another client”: $944,000 between March 11th and 15th, 2022; $1.05 million between April 7 and May 7, 2022; $1.5 million between June 11 and Dec. 16, 2022.
Failing to co-operate with three Law Society of Ontario investigations “by failing to provide a prompt and complete response to the investigator’s written request for information and books and records” since Dec. 5, 2022.
Having “used his trust account for purposes unrelated to the provision of legal services” between March 11 and Dec. 5, 2022.
Failing to maintain proper books and records from March 11 to Aug. 23, 2022.
The Spectator reached out to Falletta but received no response. It also reached out to Frank Alfano, a Hamilton paralegal who represented Falletta in the law society matters. Alfano did not respond.
Alfano, it turns out, is facing his own troubles.
The Law Society of Ontario temporarily suspended the licence of paralegal Frank Alfano, who operates under the business name We Defend You.
Steve Russell Toronto Star
The Law Society of Ontario suspended Alfano’s licence on a temporary basis beginning March 26.
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It says it did so “believing that there is a significant risk of harm to members of the public, or to the public interest in the administration of justice” if he is allowed to continue practicing while a full investigation into allegations of misconduct is carried out.
The law society alleges that, in three cases related to driving infractions, Alfano failed to show up in court, didn’t order court transcripts, failed to file appeals, lied to the court and his clients and generally “failed to serve the client to the standard of a competent paralegal.”
Documents filed with the law society also say that there are another eight ongoing investigations into Alfano arising from complaints “in which substantial misconduct is alleged.”
Some of those eight investigations stemmed from incidents that allegedly took place while Alfano was already under investigation.
These allegations include: failing to serve clients to the standards of a competent paralegal; misleading clients; failing to communicate with clients; failing to follow client instructions; failing to prevent the unauthorized practice/provision of legal services; failing to account for client funds and — similar to Falletta — misappropriating and/or mishandling and/or misapplying trust monies.
The Law Society of Ontario says Alfano is not co-operating with its investigations. And that he claims he is a law student as well as a paralegal, “thus creating uncertainty as to the rules that apply to him.”
Osgoode Hall records show Alfano graduated from law school with a master’s degree in February 2023.
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He has been in trouble before.
In 2019, he was found by the Law Society Tribunal to have committed professional misconduct.
Documents show his marketing was found to be unprofessional and untrue. “We just win,” his ads claimed “suggesting a record of success” that is not accurate.
And, in a traffic ticket blog he published, Alfano wrote: “‘Til next time — Drive Fast! Take Chances! And call me.”
The tribunal said that unprofessional message could encourage the public to take risks while driving.
He was also found to have failed to provide competent legal services, failed to show up for a trial or communicate with his client and lied to a client.
He was reprimanded and ordered to pay costs of $3,000.
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We Defend You
Francesco Salvatore Bernard Alfano is a colourful character. He has been working as a paralegal for nearly 35 years and operates under the business name We Defend You, from an address on James Street North. His tag line is “I defend people accused of stuff.” He offers services in Italian and English.
His website says he was a prolific street racer as a teenager and consequently spent a lot of time in traffic court. A lawyer there convinced him to pursue a legal career.
Alfano made Toronto headlines in early 2023 when he controversially offered free legal services to anyone caught shoplifting. He told the media the post-pandemic economy was forcing people to steal food.
“We’re just trying to help people who need it the most, especially in this day and age,” he told the Law Times.
The Spectator recently reached out to Alfano to ask about his own problems with the law society, but did not receive a response.
A date for Alfano’s law society hearing has not yet been set.
A key purpose of the Law Society of Ontario is to foster public trust in lawyers and their self-regulating process, yet the society has little to say about lawyers either alleged or found to have broken the law.
Though dozens of Ontario lawyers are sanctioned by the Law Society Tribunal each year for “misappropriating,” “misusing” and “unauthorized use of” client funds — terms suggesting theft or fraud — few are criminally convicted. Those who have wrongly taken clients’ money are not automatically reported to police by the law society.
The law society refused to say if it has contacted police regarding Falletta.
It also won’t say how the public is to know if the society is following its own guidelines about reporting law-breaking lawyers to police.
The Law Society Act says legal professionals cannot disclose information that comes to light during an investigation, such as a law society probe into a lawyer accused of stealing money, unless there are reasonable grounds for believing there is a significant risk of financial harm to a person.
“One of the main, if not primary, objectives of the law society is to attend to the public interest,” says Trevor Farrow, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School. “Lawyers need to have the public’s trust and confidence in order for not only the legal profession to work, but also generally notions of law, rule of law and justice.”
Farrow made it clear he was speaking generally and not about any particular case.
“The legal profession gets to be self-regulated in return for operating in the public interest,” he says. “It’s a core bedrock principle from the Law Society Act.”
“For the public to have trust and confidence in the regulation of the members of the law society, the public should at least be able to understand how the process works. That does not mean that the public needs to have full access to files or full access to all the materials, but I think there needs to be enough transparency for the public to understand what’s going on.”
The vast majority of Ontario’s lawyers are professional and law-abiding, says Farrow.
But when misconduct is alleged, there should be “nothing to hide.”
In those critical moments, the Law Society of Ontario should demonstrate “there is a robust process that the public can understand and have faith in.”
The tribunal says it does not keep track of how often the rule alleging criminal behaviour — rule 3.2-7 — is invoked.
A Spectator search of hearing records found two tribunal cases in 2023 that concerned 3.2-7.
In one, a lawyer was accused of illegally giving trust fund money, on several occasions, to someone other than the depositor.
The lawyer was found guilty of misconduct for using a trust account for clients “for purposes not related to the provision of legal services,” but not guilty of participating in illegal activity since the recipient of the money was never found, making it impossible to know what the money was used for.
He was suspended for nine months.
In that decision, the tribunal wrote “there is a pressing need to deter lawyers and paralegals from using their trust accounts other than for the provision of legal services.”
In the other, a lawyer was found guilty of participating in illegal activity. He had helped set up a dying man’s will so his inheritance would go to the son of the lawyer’s clerk. He also took related documents from the courthouse without authorization.
The lawyer admitted to the allegations and was allowed to surrender his licence, rather than being disbarred.
A date for Falletta’s disciplinary hearing has not yet been set.
is a columnist and investigative reporter with The Hamilton Spectator. She joined the newsroom in 1997 and specializes in crime, court and social justice. Reach her at sclairmont@thespec.com.
