A Miami-area man filed a lawsuit accusing a Canadian heiress and her husband, a former reality TV personality, of borrowing $2 million and failing to repay it.
Named in the suit are Brendan Fitzpatrick, 38, who appeared on Rich Kids of Beverly Hills, and Chloe de Serigny, 31, the granddaughter of late financier Paul Desmarais, according to the Daily Mail.
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In the federal complaint, Max Jan Fowles-Pazdro, 46, says Fitzpatrick convinced him in January 2025 to put up a $2 million bridge loan for a real estate project in the United Kingdom.
"Following repeated and increasingly desperate pleas from [Fitzpatrick] — [Fowles-Pazdro's] then-close friend — [Fowles-Pazdro] dug into his and his wife's life savings and funded a $2 million bridge loan that Brendan promised to begin repaying within six weeks," the filing stated, per the Daily Mail. "Two years have since elapsed — and not a penny of the loan has been repaid. With their nest egg gone, [Fowles-Pazdro] and his wife now teeter on financial ruin."
The suit also says the couple has continued to present an image of affluence, pointing to social media photos of them on a yacht in the Mediterranean.
It also includes text messages allegedly sent by Fitzpatrick in which he told Fowles-Pazdro that repayment was imminent.
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In one message, Fitzpatrick allegedly wrote, "I am going to fix everything this week," the Daily Mail reported.
In another, he allegedly wrote: "We will absolutely have this resolved tomorrow; if not, I will be borrowing from my mother-in-law. … We get funds by 2, or I will get them from her. I will say it's life or death."
More background
The complaint says the two families became close in 2024 while living in Miami and spending time together in California, Montréal, and the south of France.
According to the lawsuit, Fitzpatrick called Fowles-Pazdro his "best friend" and said his family was "also my family," the Daily Mail reported.
Fowles-Pazdro says they later used that personal closeness against him.
"During these lavish trips, [the Fitzpatricks] laid the groundwork to defraud and steal from [Fowles-Pazdro] and his family," the lawsuit stated, per the newspaper.
De Serigny's family background is also part of the story. Her grandfather ran Power Corporation of Canada until 1996, and the Daily Mail reported the family's net worth has been estimated at $4.5 billion.
The paper noted that Fitzpatrick is also facing another lawsuit that accuses him of running an $80 million Ponzi scheme through Carbonatik, his mining and resource management company.
In that case, his attorneys have denied much of the complaint, acknowledged limited facts involving agreements and communications, and filed a counterclaim, the Daily Mail said.
On Sept. 3, Fitzpatrick filed a motion to change lawyers.
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