Todd Howley was an ambitious inventor with a billion-dollar idea. When his scheme began to unravel, he snapped—and his main investor was found bludgeoned to death in the Muskoka River. From the archives:
Todd Howley was an ambitious inventor with a billion-dollar idea to turn algae into fuel. When his scheme began to unravel, he snapped—and his main investor was found bludgeoned to death in the Muskoka Riverodd Howley is tall, broad and bulky, with the look of a guy who was the most handsome player on his football team 30 years and 40 pounds ago.
The Sarnia boy with the high school education kept bumping up against white-shoe money, but the windfall always eluded him. A thin-lipped smirk masked his disappointment. As Howley waited for his investors to appreciate him, he spiralled into financial peril. His lab and equipment leases came to $25,000 per month. In his personal books, he listed how much his investors still owed him: $13,000 in May 2008, $25,000 in August and $43,000 by December.
After graduating from U of T with an engineering science degree in 1977, Maasland worked for Bell as a computer programmer. He liked the job but hated the bureaucracy. One night at a staff party, he boasted that he could do the work more efficiently on his own. One of his superiors overheard and hired him as an independent contractor. Maasland then founded Daedalian Systems Group, a software development firm named after the mythic Greek inventor Daedalus, in his parents’ basement.
A capital pool company, or CPC, is the most efficient method of angel investing, a kind of cash-rich shell that exists to find a promising start-up, infuse it with capital, absorb it, then take it public. Despite its name, Verdant Financial Partners was essentially just Paul Maasland. He was its CEO and chairman of the board, running Verdant out of his apartment.
A week after the cheque cleared, Howley went hat-in-hand back to Maasland. “I am now $5K from making everyone happy for the week,” he wrote. Howley claimed his equipment leases were months in arrears and his broker was demanding immediate payment. Maasland transferred another $5,000 into Howley’s account. Maasland believed in Howley; as he was cutting his cheques, he was gushing to friends, family, even his personal trainer about his company’s new acquisition.
As required by the TSX, Maasland prepared a letter of intent and drew up a press release announcing Verdant’s acquisition of Howley’s three companies. Howley’s response to the draft should have been a warning: “I really do not want the attention if the names of my companies get ‘out there.’ ” Howley didn’t like being challenged. He wrote serenely: “Paul, I fear no matter what I do for Michael, he will question the accuracy.” Then Howley used the SRED credit with which he’d collateralized Maasland’s $105,000 loan to secure yet another advance from a financing company. Before July was over, he did it again with another lender, and then used the funds from the SRED cheque to pay back even more creditors.
The afternoon before, Maasland went to Jingles. He drank his customary double Johnnie Walker Blacks. Later, he phoned his wife at the cottage. He wanted her advice on what to do about a rash on his face. He made plans to pick up his mother and her friend the next day at 12:30 when he got back from Oakville, and take them to lunch. He fell asleep. Howley, meanwhile, took his wife and kids out for dinner at Boston Pizza. He had been preparing for weeks.
Then Howley started cleaning. Security video footage from the business next door shows him walking out of the frame with a black garbage bag. He needed to get rid of the murder weapon, his bloody clothes, and Maasland’s wallet and glasses. A few minutes later, he crossed another security camera in front of the neighbouring business wearing gloves and taking out another garbage bag, sagging with the weight of its contents.
That night, Howley’s wife and kids were returning from a barbecue in Hamilton, and Howley left the lab, with Maasland’s body still in it, for home. He spent four hours with his family and tucked his children in. At 12:30 on the morning of Monday, August 30, he returned to the scene of the crime. He retrieved Maasland’s blue Subaru, then reversed it to the large, raised loading door at the back of the building.
Once there, they snatched Maasland’s cellphone, and threatened to call his wife and tell her that Maasland had been unfaithful unless he promised to continue to support the boxer kennel that they loved. When Maasland attacked them in a naked fit of rage, they hit him over the head, left him, and found him drowned under the dock hours later.
By killing Maasland, Howley had traded one level of scrutiny for a far less forgiving lot: a half-dozen police forces, Crown attorneys, forensic accountants, coroners and DNA analysts. Through phone and email records and dozens of security cameras, they would reconstruct what Howley did after murdering Paul Maasland to divert suspicion and evade justice.
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