Several people reached out to Speakers Corner after they invested and worked with a financial planner in the GTA and are now seeking their money and answers.
Lada Vorobyova is one of them. She and her husband worked for decades to pay off their Mississauga home, finally doing so in 2017.
“We’re in our 60’s, and that was big for us, we planned to stop working at this age, and I wanted to go for early retirement,” she said.
Now their retirement plans are on hold, and they also worry the home they worked so hard to pay off is in jeopardy.
It happened after their dealings with Serguei Totrov, a local financial planner and mortgage broker who had glowing reviews for retirement investments. He marketed heavily to the Russian-speaking community.
“We trusted him, we all trusted him,” Lada said.
But that trust is now in question. The couple were referred to Totrov by friends and met with him in 2023.
“We were looking to invest to get more income for retirement,” Lada explained.
“He asked us, ‘Is your house paid off?’ We said ‘yes,’ and he told us if we took out a home equity line of credit, we could invest it with him to make some money.”
According to their contract, signed in 2023, the couple agreed to invest, with others helping to fund a loan for another individual Totrov was working with, who was looking to purchase a boat.
The couple put in $320,000, and in return, they’d receive monthly interest payments, and the percentage would increase year by year.
For the first several months, the promised interest payments were coming in.
“We weren’t making a ton of money, but were able at that time to pay down the home equity line of credit,” said Lada.
They agreed at the time to give more money for a separate loan, this time $110,000.
“Everything was fine until April of last year,” she said. Since then, the payments for both investments have stopped.
The couple say they’ve met with Totrov numerous times to inquire about the payment issues.
“He kept giving us excuses and said, ‘Don’t worry, the money will come.’ But he keeps breaking those promises, and his answers are unclear,” said Lada.
Now they just want the more than $400,000 they invested back, but aren’t hopeful.
“My question is, okay, he took the money from us, where is the money? Right? It’s a simple question,” said Lada.
Another man, Val, who asked that we only use his first name, had similar problems with Totrov.
“We trusted him because he personally guarantees return. If something goes wrong, he personally guarantees it,” said Val, who is also waiting for money he invested with Totrov on a separate loan.
“He asked us to invest $200,000, which we took out a line of credit for, and he [said] he will personally guarantee,” he added.
They join a list of several other investors CityNews spoke with, sharing similar stories.
We reached Totrov, who agreed to talk with us on the phone. In that conversation, he agreed with the assertion that the would guarantee the loans.
“Yes. Of course,” he said.
He went on to say he is now working on a plan to get everyone their money back by suing the people for whom he secured the loans, claiming they stopped making payments.
When we asked when people might start receiving payments, he said he was hoping it would happen by this March.
CityNews discovered Totrov has admitted to misconduct in the past.
According to public disciplinary records, in 2006 and most recently in 2023, he was disciplined for similar behaviour by FP Canada, the regulatory body of financial planners.
Documents from FP Canada showing Serguei Totrov had been previously disciplined for his actions as a financial planner. CITYNEWS
The documents state he “failed to conduct appropriate due diligence on the investment and encouraged clients to invest in a high-risk project while portraying the investment as safe and guaranteed.”
Totrov’s financial planning certification was suspended but has since been reinstated.
As for this new round of complaints, a spokesperson for FP Canada tells CityNews, “FP Canada is aware of serious allegations raised in public civil proceedings involving Mr. Totrov, which have not yet been proven.” They went on to say it is not their policy to comment on whether they have any open complaints they are currently investigating.
“Once I resolve the situation with the investors, I will no longer engage in private mortgages or act as a personal guarantor, as I do not wish to be responsible for the behaviour of others,” Totrov said in an email to CityNews shortly after our phone conversation.
But more legal troubles are on the horizon. Lada and her husband — both now working to pay down the home equity loan they took out for this investment — plan to sue him in court.
“We will never be able to pay back this money, even when we’re six feet underground,” Lada said.
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