A growing number of investors are speaking out after they say they lost significant capital based on loan and mortgage investments arranged by a Toronto based Financial Planner who Speakers Corner has reported on in the past.
Victor Sula is among them.
“I’m out $200,000 in two different projects with him. One is a promissory note and one is an investment mortgage.”
Sula joins around 30 other people who were once strangers but now regularly meet and discuss the money they invested — and now fear they’ve lost — after working with Serguei Totrov.
“He told us he would guarantee these loans personally, so if the borrower did not pay, he would,” Sula said. “But we are not seeing any payments.”
Speakers Corner first reported on similar claims last February, when we met Lada Vorobyova, who after meeting with Totrov invested more than $400,000 to fund two separate loans where Totrov was the guarantor.
“He told us ‘Oh, it’s very good, because you can make extra money for your retirement,’ ” she told us. “‘”At first, the interest payments were coming in on a regular basis.”
But she says the payments stopped in April of 2025. When we reached Totrov months ago, he told Speakers Corner he was hoping to pay everyone back by last March.
Now in July, investors say they have not seen a dime.
“The money Totrov promised to return in March never came,” Vorobyova said.
That’s despite some people, who invested with Totrov, receiving court orders.
Elena Krassikova, who also invested money with Totrov and sued, received an Ontario superior court of justice judgement, ordering Totrov to pay her back more than $200,000 which she’s still waiting to receive.
All have filed complaints with FP Canada, the regulatory body for Financial Planners, which has taken action against Totrov since our first report aired.
FP Canada’s Hearing Panel officially suspended his financial planning certification in late May. In its decision, published in June, the panel believed Totrov had continually misrepresented high risk investments to the public.
“The Hearing Panel found reasonable grounds to believe a significant risk of harm exists, given Mr. Totrov’s extensive disciplinary history, multiple complaints indicating a pattern of misconduct, and related civil proceedings suggesting widespread and ongoing harm,” the panel wrote in its decision.
According to FP Canada, Totrov was also the subject of two prior disciplinary matters, in 2006 and 2023, involving misconduct similar to what’s being alleged in the latest round of complaints.
Speakers Corner reached out to Totrov who at first agreed to meet with us for an interview but then later declined and issued an emailed statement instead where he indicated re-payment to all investors is forthcoming.
“This past Friday, I finally received a financing commitment for one of the borrower’s properties,” he told us. “The commitment has already been signed, and the lender’s retainer has been paid.”
He claims this new commitment will allow him to receive the funds to pay back all investors waiting for payment.
“I also met with the agent on Saturday to discuss the closing procedure. If everything proceeds as expected, the lenders should be repaid in August.”
Totrov said he too is a victim. He told us the people he secured investment loans for stopped making payments.
“My mistake was placing too much trust in the borrowers and extending additional time based on that trust. I accept full responsibility for exercising poor judgment in making that decision.”
He also told us he regrets personally guaranteeing the loans for those borrowers.
“I did not borrow these funds for my own benefit or personal use. The borrowed funds were advanced to and used by the borrowers, who received and spent the money. My priority now is to ensure that my clients are repaid as quickly as possible.”
When we told investors Totrov’s hope is to repay them by next month, they remained skeptical.
“We’ve heard those promises so many times in the past,” Vorobyova told us when we called her. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
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