A timeline of the trail of scams concocted by Canada's most infamous fugitive fraudsters, Michael and Loren Koval, who have served time for bilking investors out of over S90 million.

January 1996

The Kovals open King's Health Centre in Toronto. It is a posh medical facility modeled after the famous Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The high-end facility offers services ranging from massage therapy to an indoor golf school. The facility, however, does not turn a profit and the Kovals devise a leasing scheme to help fund its operation.

The scheme involves the creation of fictitious leases of expensive medical equipment with hospitals and other health organizations as the end-user. But no equipment is actually leased and the end-user has no idea about the leases. The Kovals simply forge the signatures and deposit the corporate lender's money into their own account.

The leasing scheme not only keeps King's Health Centre afloat, it also keeps the Kovals' lifestyle afloat:

  • $7,000 a month permanent suite at the Hilton Hotel across from King's Health Centre
  • monthly lease payments of $8,000 for four luxury vehicles, including a $300,000 Bentley
  • purchases on credit cards often exceeding $25,000 a month
  • a 42-foot yacht
  • two homes, including a luxury Georgian mansion in an affluent Hamilton neighbourhood
  • $1-million paycheque from corporate funds in 2000

October 17, 2000

The Kovals disappear, leaving their staff scrambling, fifteen-million dollars missing and police on a two-month search for their whereabouts. After police threaten to arrest their daughter, Amy Koval, they take a 1,650-kilometre cab ride from Savannah, Georgia to Niagara Falls and surrender to customs officials with US$1.28 million in cash stuffed into their suitcases.

March 2001

The Kovals plead guilty to fraud. The court discovers the Kovals defrauded two financial institutions out of more than $90 million over a six-year period. Ron and Loren Koval both receive 7-year sentences.

May 2002

After 14 months, or one-sixth of their seven-year convictions, Ron and Loren Koval are released on day parole to a halfway house.

November 24, 2006

The Globe and Mail reports that Loren Koval, now going by her maiden name, Loren Kemp, is working as a marketing coordinator at Focus Physiotherapy, which runs a chain of clinics around Toronto. Ron, however, is reportedly unemployed after a stint at a manufacturing company in Brantford, Ont.

April 30, 2007

'Whistleblower' receives a tip from a viewer that Ron Koval, still on parole and now going by the name 'Mike' (his middle name is Michael), is working as a branch manager of a career counseling company in Mississauga, Ont.