2 men charged with fraud after $66K allegedly stolen from Calgary non-profit

Calgary police say they have charged two men with fraud after more than $66,000 was allegedly embezzled from a local community organization.

Nathan Mizera, 41, and Joshua Bredo, 40, have been charged with one count each of fraud over $5,000.

In 2022, two men approached the long-time directors of the Bowness Ratepayers Scout and Guide Hall Association, police said in a release.

The hall, which is located at 8551 Bowness Rd. N.W., provides a space for private and public event bookings.

The men allegedly promised to rebrand the hall and offer it as a community place to gather and hold events, police said.

"Eager to pass on the day-to-day operations and excited about the prospect of expanding the community hall for their community, the two directors agreed," the release reads. 

"The two men then assumed the positions of managing the daily operations, and one of the men appointed himself as the general manager without election or consent from the board."

The two men rebranded the hall as BowCommons, holding events under the name Discover Bowness, police said.

Two years later, board members "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," police said. Board members then contacted police.

Investigators said they believed that more than $66,000 was embezzled between 2022 and 2024.

"The two men embezzled more than $66,000 by hosting events using organization funds without paying attributed fees, falsifying documents to obtain financial control and creating false receipts for services never rendered, which were then sent to fabricated email addresses and deposited into their personal bank accounts," the release reads.

Two men were arrested and charged in relation to the missing funds on Tuesday.

Bredo, who is originally from Prince George, B.C., has a violent criminal past.

In August 2011, he fatally attacked Daniel Levesque, 20, with a hammer at the killer's Victoria apartment. Bredo was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2017.

The judge handed the killer a nine-year sentence but he received seven years' credit for the time he'd spent in custody. He was released from prison in 2018.

Mizera and Bredo will appear in court on Aug. 6.