Alleged forgery at heart of fight over $1M house debts

Rola Ghraoui lives in a six-bedroom, eight-bathroom home in Ottawa but is on social assistance and uses only a handful of rooms to save on electricity — the result, she says, of a legal battle with her ex-husband and the Royal Bank of Canada over loan documents she alleges contained forgeries.

The Royal Bank is looking to take possession of the home in the southeast Ottawa community of Navan to satisfy loans and mortgages that Ghraoui says were negotiated by her ex-husband without her knowledge or authorization.

Ghraoui and her husband Mark Yassine separated in early 2011, and when she left to visit her sister-in-law, she said she returned to find he was gone, along with her children, the furniture and the car, and that her cell phone was cut off.

When she went to the bank to find out what her assets were, she claims she discovered for the first time $995,000 in debts had been put on the house.

"So I said, 'Okay, can I have a copy of this document?' And she said yeah and I went there, and immediately when I opened the document, I saw that it is not my signature," she said.

Forensic expert backs forgery claim in court filing

Ghraoui's claim that she did not sign the document was backed up by Ottawa forensic expert Document Examination Consultants, hired by Ghraoudi's lawyers. The expert concluded in a court​ filing "there is conclusive evidence that Ghraoui did not sign the bank documents" and that "there is very strong support that Mark Yassine wrote the questioned signatures."

​Yassine would not agree to an interview with CBC but denied the fraud and forgery allegations, saying his ex-wife was aware of the transactions.

A representative of the bank itself acknowledged in court that Ghraoui may not have signed these documents, some of which were processed at the Billings Bridge branch of the RBC in Ottawa.

Erin Craig, a branch loans officer, admitted under oath that she didn't check for ID and may not have witnessed the actual signing of the documents.

RBC would not comment on the grounds the case is still before the courts.

But in its statement of claim, the bank said that even if Ghraoui did not sign the RBC mortgage documents, she derived the benefit of the RBC funds in paying off another bank to which she and her ex-husband owed debt.

Ghraoui thinks the bank should pay for what she alleges was negligence.

​"They made a big mistake and they are trying to hide it... I think they have no respect for their reputation. And I really want to understand how... the managers get involved in such trouble like this, how did it work, how did they do it."

Ghraoui living on social assistance

The case goes to court in May, but until then, Ghraoui can't sell the house or do anything with it.

Ghraoui's home is large and lavish, but she says she camps out in the living room and tries to keep the lights off. Her vehicle is almost two decades old and rusty.

A housewife who raised three children after arriving to Canada from Lebanon with her husband in the early 90s, Ghraoui says she had no money and no family to turn to when she realized her financial predicament.

Ghraoui says she was in a very traditional marriage that meant staying home and looking after the family, and said she couldn't find a job in retail because of her lack of work experience.​

She applied for and received social assistance of $670 a month, but only after welfare authorities relented when they examined her ever-growing pile of documents connected to her tangled legal case.

Ghraoui said her fight with the bank has gone beyond money.

"All I need is justice. I can't after all these years just be thrown like a piece of furniture you don't want any more, just put outside," she said.

"It's hard. Maybe it will be the end [and] I will be done with this but I want it to be done the right way."