The founder of an advocacy group hoping to push forward to help build a new arena complex in Chatham is finding himself tied up in a fraud investigation.
At approximately 8:30 p.m. Monday, the Southern Ontario Motor Speedway in South Buxton issued a statement on Facebook, calling out Nathan Trudell for inaccurately portraying himself as an employee of the Speedway in an attempt to obtain sponsorship dollars, which they expect would have gone straight to his pocket. In the statement, officials with the race track said they heard about the fraudulent activity after a driver caught Trudell in the act.
"I didn't do anything wrong, I didn't break the law," said Trudell on Tuesday. "I'm not too focused on the incident with the speedway, I'm more focused on this [arena] complex project and doing what I can to help."
The owner of the racetrack, Henry Kroeker is accusing Trudell of fraud and Chatham-Kent Police Services Public Communications Officer Constable Renee Cowell confirmed to Blackburn News on Tuesday that the local police force is investigating an alleged incident of fraud at the Southern Ontario Motor Speedway. Trudell also said he is aware of the investigation.
Read the full statement from the speedway below:
Trudell is the founder of Build The Complex CK, a group advocating for building a new 4,000-seat hockey arena in Chatham. On Monday, the council voted 13-4 in favour of going ahead with the new planning stages, but the real fireworks happened before the vote.
"The accusations made by the owner of the track are completely false," said Trudell. "[On Monday] I was contacted by him to go out [to the race-track] I showed up there, he immediately came at me and punched me in the face."
Koeker denies the altercation happened. He said Trudell initiated the phone call and threatened him before going over to the raceway on Monday. Trudell, however, said he is going to pursue assault charges against Kroeker.
A disagreement between Trudell and Koeker stems from a deal Trudell said was in place between the two involving building a private suite on the property of the raceway. Trudell said that he did approach businesses for advertisements, but maintains they were geared toward the suite, which he claims was to be a joint venture between the two parties.
Kroeker, however, denies any such agreement took place and said he had been warned by a business partner about Trudell's past prior to meeting him. Other employees at the raceway also confirmed there was no such deal in place for a private suite to be built on the property.
Trudell is maintaining his innocence, adding he only canvassed businesses for sponsorships that would have gone up in a private suite, not on the racetrack itself.
The post from the raceway triggered an outpouring of messages on social media attacking Trudell's credibility, accusing him of previous fraudulent activity.
Some of the most notable allegations involve Trudell's 2012 business decision of opening Giggleopolis, an adventure park that was promoted as the next indoor play-place for children in Chatham-Kent.
According to a source who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of defamation, Trudell obtained numerous annual memberships for Giggleopolis before the park opened, which were being sold for $175 each. After the opening of the business halted – which happened because Trudell claims the previous property owed $500,000 in back taxes for the building – those members never received their money back.
At the time of publication, there was no word from Chatham-Kent police as to whether Trudell was facing any fraud charges, nor have any of the allegations against him been proven in court.