Businessman Philip Chancey charged with fraud in N.L.

A businessman who has had his assets frozen by courts in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia in relation to civil allegations of misconduct is now facing a criminal fraud charge.

Philip Chancey, scheduled for a first appearance at provincial court in St. John's next week, is facing one count of fraud over $5,000.

According to court documents, Chanceynow lives in Dartmouth, N.S.

His alleged victim is Jerome Groves.

Two years ago, Groves went public in an interview with CBC News, after filing a complaint against Chancey with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

Groves said he lost an estimated $50,000 in a business deal gone wrong with Chancey, related to a startup company for electric vehicle dealerships.

In a letter addressed to CBC News at the time, Chancey denied any wrongdoing and said he was still close to getting financing to start the business.

Around the same time, Chancey was embroiled in a number of civil lawsuits filed against him and companies linked to him.

A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge froze the assets of Chancey and his numbered company in 2018 after a New York firm sued over a deal involving construction equipment.

According to court documents, that freezing order was lifted in February 2019, when the two sides reached an agreement.

Two months later, in April 2019, another company went to court in Newfoundland and Labrador to successfully get another freezing order against Chancey and another of his firms.

• Court freezes assets of Mount Pearl businessman accused of fraud

Cox Automotive said it gave Chancey nearly $1 million after he told them he could acquire vehicles at the Canada-U.S. border at a discount, thenbroker the sale of more than 700 of them for 40 per cent of their list value.

In court documents, Cox Automotive said the vehicles were never delivered, and said it believed the cash had been wired to a bank in Iceland.

Chancey denied any wrongdoing. In an affidavit filed at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court, Chancey said he used $800,000 of that money from Cox to pay out what he owed in the Nova Scotia lawsuit.

Four months ago, Cox and Chancey reached an agreement that will see Chancey and one of his companies repay just over $1 million.

Another lawsuit in Newfoundland and Labrador that made similar allegations does not appear to have come to a conclusion, according to court records.

• Hickman Motors sues Mount Pearl man over alleged fraud days after CBC story airs

Hickman Motors Limited sued in 2019 over a deal linked to the acquisition of vehicles seized in the U.S. Hickman alleges Chancey offered to broker the sale of those vehicles, and it paid $400,000 in deposits in advance. But in court filings, Hickman says the vehicles were never delivered.

In a statement of defence, Chancey and his company said they "did not negligently or fraudulently misrepresent the ability to broker the sale" of vehicles and "deny they acted with dishonesty or deceit, or in any way commit the act of deceit and/or civil fraud."

As for Chancey's criminal fraud case, he declined comment when reached by phone on Wednesday.

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