Wife of Toronto gunman says two victims allegedly defrauded family of life savings

TORONTO -- The gunman in a fatal Toronto shooting earlier this week believed the two victims had defrauded his family, his wife said Wednesday, as court records indicate the family was suing the pair after losing more than CDN $1 million in an alleged investment scam.

A man and woman were shot to death and a male attacker also died Monday at a north Toronto office space near a daycare center.

In a statement released by her lawyers, Alisa Pogorelovsky said her husband, Alan Kats, who also died in the shooting “could not handle losing our life savings and that is what lead to this tragic event.”

“I hope someday my family will be able to recover,” she wrote.

Police have identified the victims of Monday’s shooting as 54-year-old Arash Missaghi and 44-year-old Samira Yousefi, but have not identified the 46-year-old shooter.

Court records detail how Pogorelovsky and her husband sued the two people killed in the shooting, and others, after losing CDN $1.28 million (US$930,000) in an alleged syndicated mortgage fraud.

The allegations against Missaghi and Yousefi had not been proven in court.

Missaghi faced charges in 2018 for his alleged role in a complex mortgage fraud scheme valued at CDN $17 million (US$12.4 million), an investigation police dubbed as Project Bridle Path.

“The events that gave rise to the litigation that we are involved in with Missaghi and Yousefi have devastated and now destroyed our family,” Pogorelovsky’s statement said.

It added that she found a note after the shooting, written by her husband, explaining “what he was thinking and why he acted as he did.”

The shooting Monday afternoon in Toronto’s North York neighborhood took place at a business that conducts “financial transactions,” police have said.