After recent discussions with a few people, some of them victims or potential employees of Derek and Kevin, here is the way they have adapted to changing circumstances. When we last met them they were still doing quite well, although their advertising for their business was somewhat limited and they were being forced to use multiple company names. They are down to just the two of them - Derek and Kumar, although they are still trying to recruit front men for their organization. Manji was a rising star with them but he appears to have left the group. We always knew that Derek, at least in court, used OPCA arguments but here's a recent communication from a victim discussing Derek and Kumar's philosophies:
I'm finding this information very interesting! Having met Kevin in person
and extensive phone conversations, I can confidently say that he is a nut
case and very much believes in the OPCA philosophy. He gets very animated
when talking about "human rights as a Canadian citizen", and on several
occasions would go off-course and I'd be listening to a bizarre rant about
his views of the government, lawyers, judges and human rights. I brushed it
off at the time, because I thought the legal advice was helping our fight
against foreclosure and that Kevin just had some kooky passion about human
rights.
Pat/Derek similarly went on these rants. An interesting fact: for someone
who never shows up in court, Derek knows the names of various judges and
speaks of them as if he knows them. On several occasions, both he and Kevin
bragged about how many times they have "fought the man" in court, and how
many hearings they have attended. One example: Derek told me before our
first hearing that Judge Mason was a bitch, and referenced some hearing he
attended when she was presiding. Ironically, she was our judge on July 23,
and she was nothing but nice to us.
BTW, Derek often used the name of Patrick Sharp, human rights investigator. At least he hasn't used the name Patricia Sharpe lately, since he reserves that name for interacting with RECA.
Previously, the crew made up their own ads on Kijiji to sell foreclosed properties and that was a handy method to trace them. It took them months, but they have finally realized that a better way was to get the victim to post the ads to sell the properties themselves. The mark is given a basic outline of what to say and then they are told to post the same ad every day, deleting and reposting it in the afternoon. Although this keeps it at the top of the list for postings, it makes it difficult to track the ad. However Google can be told to track for cached copies.
The victim is given a gmail email address and password to use so Derek and the crew can monitor responses to the ad. This does have its drawbacks however, I have noted that it appears when someone replies to the ad there is internal miscommunications as if Derek and Kevin aren't keeping each other up to date.
Still the same tactics after they have made contact with the potential victim. The victim is given a script to read in court and told to send emails to the court and lawyers using the "produce the note" arguments which have failed miserably in Canada. A bit of a change on the contracts for rent to own agreements and purchase contracts for properties though - they've become very vague on details. Perhaps this is to give them an "easy out" when challenged. I will be digging out more as my porcine minions continue to monitor the situation.
Interestingly enough, after I posted links to real court documents Derek and Kumar stopped talking to me, except as I mentioned previously, I have become a target to be blamed for all their problems. Oh well, I have broad shoulders.