A body found in January by the Hong Kong police might provide a possible resolution to the story of Anita Koo, who, missing since 2002, has been accused along with her husband Tony, of orchestrating one of the largest bank frauds in Canadian history.

In 2002 a Canadian court rendered a $15 million judgement, in absentia, against Anita and Tony Koo in relation to Anita Koo's handling of the accounts of Bank of Montreal customer Slavador Casanova. Casanova had placed several million dollars with the bank, dealing exclusively in his banking arrangments with Anita Koo.

According to the evidence submitted at trial, Koo systematically emptied Casanova's account which had reached almost $10 million. Anita and her husband fled Canada in the midst of their defense against a suit brought by Casanova. The Koos' bank records were later opened by order of the court and revealed how Anita Koo appropriated Casanova's assets.

And that's when the story really gets interesting. So interesting that The Daily Caveat can't do it justice. Please click on over to the Calgary Herald for all the details. Following is a brief taste:

Anita, a former $38,000-a-year audit and custodial officer with the Bank of Montreal's Calgary Securities Centre, was being investigated by police for defrauding retired Mexico City oilman Salvador Casanova of $13.5 million in an elaborate multi-year banking swindle. At the time, the sensational fraud was called an isolated incident by Bank of Montreal spokesman Ralph Marranca.

It was always believed that the Koos had fled to southeast Asia, most likely Hong Kong, but law enforcement officials never confirmed it. RCMP have recently received information from Hong Kong police that a body identified as Yuk Chun Anita Mak -- a name used by Anita Koo -- was found earlier this year. "An investigation is continuing in order to confirm whether the deceased was in fact Anita Koo," said RCMP Sgt. Phil Tawtel. Mak died on Jan. 4, 2005, as a result of "impact from height," according to the coroner's report, Tawtel said.

Hong Kong media reports say security discovered a woman's body lying on the ground outside her highrise apartment in Tung Chung at 10 a.m. on Jan. 4. Officials at the Seaview Crescent development in Tung Chung confirmed a person died under those circumstances on that date... According to the article, police called to the scene determined Mak had died instantly from the fall. Police searched her residence and found a relative, who was not identified in the article, and a suicide note.

Jan. 4 is the date of a Hong Kong postmark on an envelope received by the Calgary Herald. The envelope contained a letter signed by an Anita Koo claiming sole responsibility for the fraud. She also said she was going to end her life. The letter to the Herald surfaced as RCMP were finalizing their submission to the Crown regarding evidence to support the laying of charges against Anita and Tony Koo. The Herald alerted RCMP to the existence of the letter. The RCMP would later receive similar correspondence purported to be from an Anita Koo.

As a result of the surprise developments, the Commercial Crime Section of the RCMP, which had been on the lookout for the Koos, switched gears and began investigating the possible death of the Calgary socialite. But investigators say they won't close the file on Anita Koo without iron-clad proof of the corpse's identity... It's not unusual for individuals hoping to escape prosecution to stage their own deaths -- for example, reports recently said former Bre-X geologist Michael de Guzman may still be alive. De Guzman was said to have flung himself from a helicopter over the jungles of Indonesia in 1997, shortly before his company imploded in one of the biggest mining scandals in modern history. His body was cremated before a positive identification could be made.

Tawtel is hoping for a positive identification now that Hong Kong police are reviewing their original investigation into Mak's death. In her letter to the Herald dated Dec. 30, 2004, Anita writes: "Just to let you know that I am totally responsible for the fraud. Both my son and my husband are innocent. You have already done enough to destroy them even though most of them are untrue and unfair comments. "I am going to end this whole thing and my life together. As a dying woman's last wish, please do not publish any more and let them go back to their lives. Thanks a million and may God bless you, your staff and their families."

It's signed Anita Koo and followed by the following post-script in longhand: "Please put yourself in the position of a wife and mother. Please do that. I beg of you." The Herald hired Kenneth J. Davies, a certified graphoanalyst -- or handwriting expert -- to verify the authenticity of the handwriting and signature on the letter it received. As part of the Herald investigation, Davies was provided with the envelope and letter, and copies of court documents bearing Anita Koo's known signature as well as copies of her handwritten correspondence to Casanova for comparison. After comparing the documents, Davies confirmed the authenticity of the handwriting and signature....

...Anita, the sole supervisor of Casanova's U.S. dollar term deposits at the Bank of Montreal for more than a decade, bilked the former oilman, now 92, of $9 million US in an elaborate scheme that started in 1995 and continued through to January 2002 -- a full year after she retired from the bank. Casanova, a Bank of Montreal customer since the mid-1980s, held more than $5 million US in term deposits with the bank in 1992. Koo issued official Bank of Montreal receipts and documentation to Casanova as part of her guise, leading him to believe that the significant deposits he was making into his U.S. dollar fixed-term deposits in her care were building his wealth.

Instead, it's alleged the Koos used Casanova's cash -- money he'd intended as an inheritance for his six children -- to support a lavish lifestyle...The couple also gained a reputation within Calgary's Chinese community for opulent dinner parties, where they would wine and dine influential business leaders and politicians -- including Premier Ralph Klein . As certified fraud examiner Robert Taylor concluded in his 2002 affidavit after reviewing thousands of pages of the Koos' bank records and related financial records: "Their combined appetite for cash is very significant and has almost depleted all of the Casanova funds."

...Ironically, it was Casanova, not the Bank of Montreal, who uncovered the fraud in January 2002. The wealthy patriarch became suspicious when Anita, a woman he'd trusted for more than a decade, repeatedly failed to honour his request to return his money to him in Mexico City, and instead offered up excuses why the withdrawal couldn't occur. Anita told Casanova he hadn't paid withholding taxes on his deposits and therefore would face sizeable fines and penalties upon withdrawal. She recommended Casanova leave the funds alone. Worried and embarrassed, Casanova confessed his anxieties to his son, Salvador Enrique Casanova Rosellon, who contacted bank officials only to learn that Anita had retired a year earlier and his father's investment accounts, which should have totalled more than $9 million US, were empty...

...While questions about Anita remain, the Department of Special Prosecutions, a unit within the provincial Crown that handles major fraud investigations, is reviewing the RCMP's submission for criminal charges. The Crown is proceeding with its review on the assumption that Anita Koo is alive, but Tawtel said the Crown will not recommend charges be filed until the identity of the body in Hong Kong is verified.

Ok, perhaps that was more than brief. But there is still much more detail in the original article, as well as a few references to the role of priviate investigators in tracing and evaluating the Koo's assets.

Just fascinating stuff.

Read the rest here.

-- MDT