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Cause of Billionaires’ ‘Suspicious’ Deaths Revealed

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By Travis Fedschun. A Canadian billionaire and his wife whose bodies turned up in their Toronto mansion, in what police called “suspicious” deaths, died from ligature neck compression, Toronto law enforcement said Sunday, a development suggesting the couple was strangled.

Pharmaceuticals billionaire Barry Sherman, 75, founder of Apotex Inc., and his 70-year-old wife, Honey, were found dead in their north Toronto mansion on Friday.

Multiple Canadian media outlets reported that police initially were investigating the deaths as a possible murder-suicide, citing unidentified police sources. The bodies were found hanging from a railing on the edge of a basement swimming pool, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, and CTV News reported, all citing police sources.

Investigators were working on the theory that Sherman killed his wife at some place in the mansion, hanged her body and then hanged himself at the pool’s edge. The Shermans recently put up their house for sale for $6.9 million ($5.4 million in U.S. dollars).

The immediate family in a statement released Saturday by Apotex admonished law enforcement sources for telling members of the media the deaths were from a murder-suicide before autopsy results were released, and slammed reports of a possible murder-suicide as “irresponsible.” (Read more from “Cause of Billionaires’ ‘Suspicious’ Deaths Revealed” HERE)

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Millionaire Heir Found Guilty of Murdering Ex-Girlfriend, Burning Her Body in an Incinerator Called ‘the Eliminator’ to Satisfy Lover

By Christopher Carbone. A jury in Canada found two men guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a woman whose body was burned inside an animal incinerator that was called “the eliminator.”

Jurors in Ontario Superior Court needed less than four days to render a verdict in the bizarre case, finding Dellen Millard, 32, and Mark Smich, 30, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 23-year-old Laura Babcock, reports CBC News.

The victim’s family and several jurors reportedly cried as the verdict was read.

Millard, the heir to a storied aviation company, owned a fleet of cars parked at an airport hangar — including a maroon, boat-sized Cadillac. He hosted pool parties where women outnumbered men by a 2-to-1 ratio and also owned a range of high-end properties.

Smich and Millard, already serving sentences in the murder of Tim Bosma, were automatically sentenced to life imprisonment without a chance of parole for 25 years in Babcock’s death. (Read more from “Millionaire Heir Found Guilty of Murdering Ex-Girlfriend, Burning Her Body in an Incinerator Called ‘the Eliminator’ to Satisfy Lover” HERE)

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Opioid Billionaire Arrested on Racketeering Charges

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John Kapoor, billionaire founder of opioid spray manufacturer Insys Therapeutics, was arrested in Phoenix on Thursday morning and charged with RICO conspiracy, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback law. FORBES reached out to Insys on Thursday morning but has not heard back yet. An attorney for Kapoor told CBS News, that Kapoor “is innocent of these charges and intends to fight the charges vigorously.”

“In the midst of a nationwide opioid epidemic that has reached crisis proportions, Mr. Kapoor and his company stand accused of bribing doctors to overprescribe a potent opioid and committing fraud on insurance companies solely for profit,” acting U.S. attorney William D. Weinreb said in statement. “Today’s arrest and charges reflect our ongoing efforts to attack the opioid crisis from all angles. We must hold the industry and its leadership accountable – just as we would the cartels or a street-level drug dealer.”

This arrest and charges were announced just as reports surfaced that President Trump is going to declare the country’s opioid crisis a public health emergency later today. More directly, the charges come out of a superseding indictment that was unsealed Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Massachusetts that had arrested and charged six other former Insys executives in December 2016. At that time, the six arrested were former CEO Michael Babich as well as Alec Burlakoff, 42,the former Vice President of Sales; Richard M. Simon, 46, the former National Director of Sales; former Regional Sales Directors Sunrise Lee, 36, and Joseph A. Rowan, 43; and former Vice President of Managed Markets, Michael J. Gurry, 53. (Read more from “Opioid Billionaire Arrested on Racketeering Charges” HERE)

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Billionaires’ Strange, Secret Life Revealed

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In February 2011, Paramount Pictures asked me if I could fill in for a week as a driver for Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of Viacom and CBS Corp. I’d had experience driving Hollywood talent and had a good reputation, and I accepted the position from the Paramount transportation planner.

Prior to starting the job, I met with Redstone’s regular driver to learn the routine. My initial instructions were pretty basic: a tour of the restaurants that Redstone frequented and ordered out from, the locations of his physicians’ offices, the Westwood theater location where Redstone was to make a red-carpet appearance at a movie premiere . . .

My week of employment began on a Monday morning after picking up from Paramount a custom Lincoln Town Car that contained a satellite television, along with interior video monitors. When I arrived at the gated Beverly Park Terrace residence, I was informed by a staff member at the house that I would be taking both Redstone and Sydney Holland (picture above right, with Redstone and his companion, Manuela Herzer) to his dentist appointment. However, the staff member first gave me a check with “Beverly Park LLC” in the top corner made out for several thousand dollars that was to be cashed at a Bank of America branch in Beverly Hills and the money brought back to the house. I proceeded to the bank and returned to the house with the cash envelope.

Upon my return, while parking in the front driveway, I noticed an old, red subcompact car that had the driver-side mirror duct-taped in place. The 40ish woman getting out of the vehicle was attractive but also looked a bit weary in her appearance. I figured she was hired help for the house, so I wondered why she would be parking in the main driveway rather than on the side, where I knew the house staff was told to park.

[Her name was Sydney Holland.] It had become pretty clear during my first few weeks back that Holland had aligned herself with Redstone and was reaping significant financial benefits. I had heard various rumors about Holland from people on staff and learned that she had been known as Sydney Stanger and was the co-founder of “The Inner Circle,” a VIP social club that advertised matchmaking services. (Read more from “Billionaires’ Strange, Secret Life Revealed” HERE)

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