Men charged in Bowness fraud accuse police of corruption in $3.5-million lawsuit
Social Sharing
Two men facing fraud charges connected to allegations they embezzled more than $60,000 from a local community association claim the family leading that organization, including two Calgary police officers who are married to each other, targeted them after they tried to expose corruption.
The allegations are detailed in a $3.5-million lawsuit filed at the Calgary Courts Centre.
This week, police announced fraud charges against Nathan Mizera, 41, and Joshua Bredo, 40. The men have not yet entered pleas to the charges.
Bredo previously served a nine-year prison sentence for manslaughter after he admitted to attacking a 20-year-old with a hammer in 2011.
Aliases used
He also has a history of using aliases, including Joshua Baba, and has been accused in a number of financial controversies in both Calgary and Prince George, B.C., over the last 17 years.
Four months before they were charged, Bredo and Mizera, who are in a common-law relationship, filed the lawsuit against the police and several members of the Graham family, alleging they were illegally terminated from their jobs working for the Bowness Ratepayers Scout and Guide Hall Association.
Harold Graham was the president of the association for 40 years until his death last year.
The lawsuit alleges two police officers — Det. Sheldon Graham and his wife, Staff Sgt. Kathy Graham — used their positions to unlawfully access and share information gained via police databases about Bredo's manslaughter conviction to "orchestrate and implement" the firing of Mizera and Bredo.
The officers are the son and daughter-in-law of Harold and Elaine Graham.
"The decision to intervene in a private employment matter while simultaneously overseeing or influencing a parallel criminal investigation was a clear abuse of authority, devoid of lawful justification," reads the statement of claim.
"The plaintiffs' termination, executed under the shadow of an ongoing investigation, was designed to create an appearance of wrongdoing, inflict reputational damage and improperly interfere with their ability to defend themselves."
Investigation 'independent of the Grahams'
When asked if the two officers were involved in the investigation into Bredo and Mizera, the Calgary Police Service said it "conducted this investigation independent of the Grahams."
"We cannot comment further on litigation that is active," said the service in its brief statement.
"The Calgary Police Service will file a statement of defence in due course."
CBC News has also attempted to contact several members of the Graham family but did not receive any responses.
Statements of defence have not yet been filed and none of the allegations in the claim have been tested in court.
$66K in 'missing funds'
On Wednesday, Calgary police announced the fraud charges against Bredo and Mizera.
According to police, the pair became involved with the association and its hall in 2022.
Police say the men rebranded the hall as BowCommons and held events under the name Discover Bowness, using it as a place to gather and hold events within the community.
Bredo and Mizera began managing the daily operations and one appointed himself general manager "without election or consent from the board," according to police.
In 2024, police say board members contacted police after they "became concerned with the maintenance and deterioration of the hall and the transparency of financial documents, which led to the discovery of a significant amount of missing funds."
Investigators said they believed that more than $66,000 was embezzled between 2022 and 2024.
Police allege the men hosted events using organization funds without paying attributed fees, falsified documents to obtain financial control and created false receipts for services never rendered, "which were then sent to fabricated email addresses and deposited into their personal bank accounts."
The pair are due in court on Aug. 6.
The lawsuit names two sets of defendants — those connected to the Bowness Scout and Guide Hall Association and the Calgary Police Service defendants.
A 'whistleblowing memorandum'
Bredo and Mizera, who were employed by the association between October 2022 and April 2024, allege in their lawsuit that they were terminated one month after attempting to reveal "financial mismanagement" within the association.
The pair say they issued a "whistleblowing memorandum" in March 2024, recommending an independent forensic audit of the association's financial records and the restructuring of its governance framework.
Instead of calling a board meeting, the plaintiffs allege that the stepdaughter of the president "attempted to bribe" them into silence.
They were fired a month later.
Controversies connected to Bredo, aka Joshua Baba, date back more than a decade.
In 2008, the father of a Canadian soldier killed a year earlier by a bomb while serving in Afghanistan was attempting to set up a foundation in his son's name.
Soldier fundraising a bust
At the time, Matthew McCully's father Ron McCully told CBC News that Joshua Baba was responsible for the collapse of his foundation.
Back then, Baba billed himself as a public relations consultant and signed up to help the grieving father start the Matthew McCully Foundation in Prince George, which would have involved a monument and a national Support Our Troops speaking tour.
Baba committed to contributing the first $10,000, money McCully said he never followed through on.
McCully also said Baba raised funds but the foundation never saw any of that money.
In the months after McCully's planned foundation failed, Baba turned up in Calgary, promising to, again, put up $10,000 of his own money for a group called Stand Up Calgary, a crime-fighting campaign.
Baba told CBC News that his aim was to get other businesses to chip in to help fund the group he'd launched.
Stand Up Calgary went nowhere after the McCully story came to light. When asked for comment at the time, Baba refused to answer questions from CBC News, saying he was trying to resolve things before commenting.
Political involvement
Bredo/Baba also has political connections.
At one point, he was the director of communications for the Alberta Wild Rose Alliance Party, leaving the group in 2008. At the time then-party leader Paul Hinman confirmed to CBC News that he'd taken off unexpectedly, leaving behind no contact information, and a $2,000 phone bill.
Bredo also once worked for Conservative MP Dick Harris in Prince George, B.C. When he left that position, he accused Harris of violating the Elections Act and helped launch an RCMP investigation. The investigation revealed no improper behaviour.
In 2009, Bredo worked as executive assistant for Calgary mayoral candidate George Dadamo.
After the Calgary Herald revealed Bredo's controversial past in both Calgary and Prince George, Dadamo pulled his name from the running.
The killing
Two years later, Bredo was working as a manager in Victoria at a 7-Eleven. In 2011, he hired Daniel Levesque, an aspiring musician who'd moved to Vancouver Island in hopes of furthering his music career.
Details of the killing come from a B.C. judge's sentencing decision issued in 2017.
According to that decision, Bredo told Levesque a series of lies about his wealth and connections. The victim "came to trust him absolutely."
Over their seven-month relationship, Bredo developed an "infatuation" with Levesque but realized the 20-year-old did not feel the same.
As Bredo's lies unravelled "his world was coming undone," wrote the judge who noted Bredo had lost his girlfriend and was about to lose his job and apartment.
On Aug. 3, 2011, Levesque was at Bredo's apartment but came to realize he'd been repeatedly lied to. Levesque told Bredo the friendship was over and tried to leave the apartment.
Victim begged to be let go
In the sentencing decision, it said that Bredo blocked him, held him and grabbed a hammer, hitting Levesque over the head three times.
Levesque, who was bleeding from his head, tried to leave and begged to be let go, but Bredo continued to block the door.
When Levesque eventually lost consciousness, Bredo stabbed himself with a kitchen knife, placed the knife in his victim's hand and called 911.
He told police Levesque was the aggressor and that he'd simply defended himself.
His lies were eventually uncovered and he was charged with murder.
Bredo pleaded guilty to manslaughter and in 2017 was handed a nine-year sentence. With credit for the time he'd already served, Bredo had two years left on his sentence to be followed by three years' probation.
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