Police in Calgary have charged a local real estate broker with fraud in multimillion-dollar investment scams.
According to the charges, the police were contacted in July 2024 by an individual who said he was invested approximately $80,000 over the course of a year with Eric Drinkwater, a broker with RE/MAX Central. However, the investor said he never received any type of repayment despite having a financial agreement with Drinkwater. The victim made multiple attempts to contact Drinkwater about a repayment timeline but only received excuses.
A police probe into Drinkwater found several additional victims in similar investment scams between March 2020 and February 2024. Drinkwater guaranteed these short-term, high-interest transactions by claiming they were backed by garnishment of his commission from RE/MAX Central should he fail to repay the loans.
To date, 16 victims have come forward a combined loss of more than $1.9 million.
Drinkwater was charged with one count of fraud over $5,000 and is scheduled to appear in court on June 11.
