Fraud dispute led to fatal Toronto office shooting: gunman's wife

The wife of a gunman in a fatal Toronto shooting says he believed the two victims were behind an alleged mortgage investment scheme that defrauded their family.

In a statement released by her lawyers, Alisa Pogorelovsky says her husband Alan Kats — who also died in the shooting — "could not handle losing our life savings and that is what [led] to this tragic event."

Toronto police would not confirm Kats is the gunman, saying in an email it cannot identify people who die by suicide.

Police have identified the victims of Monday's shooting as 54-year-old Arash Missaghi and 44-year-old Samira Yousefi, but have not released the name of a 46-year-old man, who police said they believe is responsible for the killing.

Court records detail how Pogorelovsky and her husband sued the two people killed in the shooting, and others, after losing $1.28 million in an alleged syndicated mortgage fraud.

"The events that gave rise to the litigation that we are involved in with Missaghi and Yousefi have devastated and now destroyed our family," she wrote.

"I hope that someday my family will be able to recover."

The allegations against Missaghi and Yousefi had not been proven in court.

Missaghi faced charges in 2018 for his alleged role in a complex mortgage fraud scheme valued at $17 million, an investigation police dubbed as Project Bridle Path.

Pogorelovsky's statement says she found a note after the shooting written by her husband that explains "what he was thinking and why he acted as he did."

In an image of the note shared by Pogorelovsky's lawyer, Sahar Cadili, it reads: "my death is in the hands Samira Yousefi, Arash Missaghi" and two other names. It adds, "stop these criminals."

The shooting Monday afternoon in Toronto's North York neighbourhood took place at a business that conducts "financial transactions," police have said. Four people were believed to be inside at the time.