He Stole Nearly A Million Dollars From A Dead Man After Forging A Will
Robert Konashewych was a Toronto police officer who plotted a bizarre fraud scheme that eventually led to him being given a seven-year prison sentence.
He forged a will and stole nearly a million dollars from a dead man. It was one of the most shocking cases of deception that the city had ever seen.
When Robert Konashewych was a teenager, he met Candice Dixon. They jokingly promised to get together one day if they were both still single at 35. They ran into each other again in their late 20s. Both were still unmarried, so they reconnected.
Around that time, Konashewych decided to join the Toronto police force. He graduated in 2008 and took a job as a beat cop. He made good money, but Dixon noticed that he was terrible at managing money.
He had expensive taste, lived beyond his means, and was loaded with a mountain of debt. She and her family were successful and spent their money wisely.
He and Dixon started fighting more, mostly about how he liked to inject steroids to get bigger muscles. One day, in 2014, Adellene Balgobin caught his eye. A few weeks later, they went on their first date. Adellene had no idea he was not single.
Balgobin worked at the Ontario Public Guardian and Trustee (OPGT) and was in charge of the elderly’s finances.
Konashewych promised to leave Dixon, so he and Balgobin could finally be together, but the money he would lose was holding him back. That was how the plan was formed.
Balgobin was the senior client representative of Heinz Sommerfeld, a reclusive man who never married. However, he was a devoted uncle.
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In 1995, Sommerfeld and his half- brother, Peter Stelter, fell out of touch after Sommerfeld got upset that Stelter never checked on him when he was sick.
Sommerfeld began suffering from dementia in the early 2000s. He became more agitated and forgetful. Neighbors worried that he was declining.
Finally, in September 2008, he was diagnosed with dementia. A doctor declared that he was unable to manage his own affairs.
Since he claimed to have no next of kin, he became a client of OPGT. Even though he had substantial assets, he did not have a will, and Balgobin knew this.
When Sommerfeld died in June 2017, Balgobin and Konashewych worked together to steal his money.
She withdrew his documents, and Konashewych drew up a fake will. He claimed that he had met and befriended Sommerfeld when he was 22 years old and working as a security officer.
Sommerfeld supposedly decided to appoint him as the executor of his will and leave his entire estate of $831,351.55 to him.
The estate proceeds were released to Konashewych in 2018. Everything was going according to plan until Konashewych moved out but failed to redirect his mail. Dixon opened up the letters and discovered the connection between Konashewych and Balgobin.
Balgobin was fired from the OPGT, and Konashewych was suspended without pay. Ultimately, they were both sent to prison for seven years.
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