To lonely women on dating sites, Shaun Rootenberg seemed like a catch. Little did they know, he’d spent decades stealing from just about anyone who crossed his path. From the archives:
he first thing Victoria Smith noticed about “Shaun”—no last name, no picture—was his passion for adventure. It was hard to miss: his eHarmony profile mentioned it three times. She knew she could use some adventure in her life. Before her divorce, she had travelled widely, and even now, in her 40s, living alone in Toronto’s west end, her kids nearly grown, she tried to maintain that spirit.
Smith had suffered through a painful divorce and adjusted to the prospect of a life alone. It had been a long time since her future looked bright. Now, reluctantly, finally, she allowed herself to feel something like hope.overs make the easiest marks. In the dating world, there is no consumer protection agency, no regulatory body or task force looking out for earnest seekers of love. That leaves the romantics—open-hearted, primed to trust, longing for intimacy—to fend for themselves.
Around the same time Rootenberg and Smith’s relationship began, a woman named Kim Barker logged on to eHarmony. She was a 43-year-old doctor and newly single mother of three from Toronto who had just become medical officer of health at Algoma Public Health, in Sault Ste. Marie. Far from her adult kids and alone in a new city, she decided to try online dating. One profile caught her attention: “Shaun” said he worked in mergers and acquisitions in Toronto.
When the bank called to verify the transaction, they told her she’d made a spelling mistake. Shaun’s last name was Rootenberg, they said. When she googled that name and discovered that he had a criminal record, she felt betrayed. She confronted him and he mounted an impassioned defence. He had been charged with fraud, he said, but it was all a misunderstanding.
After university, a friend offered him a job at a collections agency, and, left with no better options, he accepted. Hounding borrowers for repayment was hardly glamorous, but he was good at it. On the phone, he could be assertive and bend the truth as far as he needed to get the borrower to pay up. “I’m going to sue you,” he’d say in a flat, icy tone. “If you don’t pay, I’m going to take you to court.
Rootenberg created a corporation called Jonevan Investments and joined Magna Golf Club, the private club opened by auto parts and horse racing magnate Frank Stronach. On the course, he went to work, using the truth as a base then layering on lies as needed. He would say that he’d attended Western University’s Ivey Business School, played varsity soccer and earned an MBA from Georgetown University.
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