91原创

The lone full-time detective on the case, Yim recently remarked that his job is never-ending.

鈥淪ometimes it feels like you鈥檙e chopping the head off a mythical hydra and two more heads will grow back,鈥� Yim recently told Justice David Porter of the Ontario Court of Justice, who next year will rule on whether the 91原创 Star gets access to more of the police files detailing the Sherman case. 鈥淵ou do one (investigative) action and that action spurs two more actions.鈥�

On that day one year ago, Yim carried with him a search warrant authorized the day before by Justice Leslie Pringle, one of her last acts before retiring from the bench. Pringle handled all of the Sherman warrants since day one.

When Yim arrived at the target office, the interchange took less than five minutes. A person handed over a computer storage device packed with 14,801 electronic files. This was not a true search. This was a handover agreed upon through advance discussion.

As a 91原创 Star investigation shows, this is typical of how police have treated the Sherman business interests 鈥� carefully, with kid gloves. Members of the Sherman family, lawyers, and executors of the Sherman estate have determined what police can and cannot see in one of the highest-profile murder cases in Canadian history.

鈥淚t鈥檚 absolutely ridiculous,鈥� said one investigator with knowledge of the case. 鈥淗ow on earth can this be solved without knowing absolutely everything?鈥�

For example, way back at the start of the investigation, the Sherman camp quickly gave police the files on Barry鈥檚 deals with one businessman in particular, and Barry鈥檚 acrimonious dispute with four members of his own family.

Not so with Barry鈥檚 code-named offshore trusts and certain megadeals, including one valued at well over a billion dollars.

To this day, police do not have the full picture of Barry Sherman鈥檚 $10-billion empire.

For the past six years, the Star has been arguing in court for more scrutiny on a police investigation that went off the rails from day one 鈥� when Barry and Honey鈥檚 bodies were discovered. 91原创 homicide detectives and a forensic pathologist initially theorized it was murder-suicide, until the Star published details of a second set of autopsies revealing that both Shermans had been tied at the wrists before they were killed, and thin ligatures similar to nylon zip ties were used to strangle them. No ties or bindings were found at the scene.

Now, Yim is mired in what police say is a 鈥渃ircumstantial鈥� case 鈥� meaning there is no direct forensic or other evidence pointing to the identity of the killers.

This two-part series looks at how the police attacked the case: what they did, tried to do, and failed to do.

Today: Following the money

Mary Shechtman, Honey鈥檚 sister, headed to a 91原创 police station on the evening of Dec. 15, 2017, the day the bodies were found.

鈥淚 was a mess, obviously, but I wanted to tell the police what I knew,鈥� Shechtman recalls. She and her sister were best friends and Barry was like a brother.

Earlier that day, Shechtman was in Florida when she received the terrible news. It came in a phone call from the realtor who stumbled upon the couple鈥檚 corpses in their basement swimming-pool room, posed in a semi-seated position held upright by leather belts tied around their necks. Shechtman immediately chartered a plane home (a $20,000-plus expense to Sherman company Apotex that would quickly anger the Sherman children) and made it to Sherman daughter Alexandra鈥檚 house by the early evening.

Shechtman was there when homicide Det. Jeff Tavares arrived to speak with the family, but he provided barest of details and left quickly. Daughter Alexandra recalls being angry that Tavares 鈥渘ever even took off his coat.鈥�

Shechtman decided to follow the detective to 33 Division, a North 91原创 police station where the fledgling Sherman probe was centred. Tavares took Shechtman into an interview room and turned on a tape recorder. The whispers were starting that evening and Shechtman wanted police to know two things. First, murder-suicide was a ridiculous theory. Second, they needed to follow the money.

鈥淓veryone wanted to get near Barry and Honey because of their wealth,鈥� Shechtman told police, according to her interview statement.

While Shechtman did muse that religion might be a motive (she told the detective that Honey and Barry were strong supporters of 91原创 and Honey had recently attended a lecture 鈥渁bout stopping money from getting into Muslim fundamentalists鈥� hands鈥�) she proceeded to give police a mini-tutorial on the dynamics of family and business associates.

She said the Shermans had wildly different parenting styles. Honey was the 鈥渕ean one,鈥� who was tough on the kids, wanting them to work hard. Barry lavished the children with money, beginning with $1 million when each turned 21, and much more to the two older children, Lauren and Jonathon, in later years.

Shechtman then gave police the first inkling they would have of the spiderweb of financial dealings they would have to unravel. The billionaire founder of Apotex was involved in a lot more than generic drugs. As one example (described in unsealed documents), she told them of Barry鈥檚 recently concluded multimillion-dollar arrangement with a young man named Andrew Liss, the former boyfriend of Jonathon.

That prompted police to reach out to Liss to get his side of the story.

In his interview, Liss told police that several years before, he and his then-boyfriend Jonathon had approached Barry with some business ideas. Barry liked one. A deal was struck where, as Liss later detailed to homicide detectives, Barry provided $50 million for Liss to build and sell homes. The caveat, according to Liss, was that Jonathon could not be involved (Barry wanted Jonathon to work at Apotex, Liss said).

The deal came crashing down in August 2016. Liss, as it turned out, knew nothing about building and selling homes. Barry stepped in and sold two homes that were being worked on by Liss. 鈥淚 lost millions,鈥� Barry told Liss.

For the next year, Barry paid Liss a 鈥渕onthly stipend鈥� (the police documents do not say how much). Those payments ended in July 2017. Liss and Jonathon had long since broken up (Jonathon had married Fred Mercure), but remained friends. Liss told police he felt 鈥渂etrayed鈥� at the way he was treated by Barry, having thought of the Sherman patriarch as a mentor and the Shermans as 鈥渇amily.鈥� Honey, he told police, never liked him. Liss said Honey thought 鈥渉e made Jonathon gay,鈥� a sentiment Liss said was shared by his own mother.

Liss, who now lives in a countryside villa in Portugal and travels the world as 鈥淭hePamperedNomad鈥� according to his Instagram page, did not respond to a request for an interview for this story. Previously, he told the Star, 鈥淛on and I are on amicable terms, and like back then, we just want what鈥檚 best for each other.鈥�

This story of a Barry Sherman deal is not unique in the partially unsealed police documents 鈥� now approaching 4,000 pages 鈥� filed in support of various search warrants and production orders.

There was the Barry-backed plan to get Apotex products into American nursing homes, an idea from an old business acquaintance. Then there was Sherman鈥檚 backing of Stephen Mernick in an apple juice venture (which then switched to a product designed to reduce cow flatulence, a contributor to greenhouse gas) that came crashing down.

As Alex Glasenberg, who ran Barry鈥檚 private investment firm Sherfam, told police: 鈥淭here are 20 or 30 small companies that are investments with Sherfam.鈥�

Given that police say in their search-warrant documents that there is a 鈥渇inancial鈥� motive, Barry鈥檚 holdings were key to the probe. But figuring out just what Barry had 鈥� now and in the past 鈥� proved to be a big problem.

It began almost immediately after the Sherman bodies were discovered. As police do in a case of suspicious death, they seized Barry and Honey鈥檚 electronic devices from their home at Old Colony Rd. Two days later, they went to Barry鈥檚 office at Apotex and seized his desktop computer.

Before they could examine it, however, police received a sharply worded letter from Jessica Kimmel of the law firm Goodmans. She said that the security chief at Apotex had no authority to permit the desktop seizure, and that Goodmans, on behalf of Apotex and Sherfam, was asserting privilege. That led to a negotiation between lawyers from Ontario鈥檚 attorney general and Apotex, resulting in a very unusual protocol: Goodmans, on behalf of Apotex (owned, after their parents鈥� deaths, by the four Sherman children) would decide what police could and could not see.

Goodmans lawyers wrote that while they wanted to fully co-operate with the police investigation, they were concerned that if certain privileged information was released to police it 鈥渃ould result in significant financial harm to the company.鈥�

With Barry and Honey gone, it fell to the executors of the Sherman estate to make these decisions. At the time, they were Glasenberg, Jonathon Sherman, Alexandra鈥檚 husband Brad Krawczyk, and Jack Kay, one of Barry鈥檚 best friends and his second in command at Apotex.

In the three months that followed the discovery of the bodies, the Sherman camp, including the executors and Sherman lawyers, made a decision on what police could get.

The Star does not know the entirety of the decisions made but has confirmed the following:

鈥淕ive them the D鈥橝ngelo stuff and the Winter stuff,鈥� was how one insider recalled those deliberations, a reference to Barry鈥檚 investments with businessman Frank D鈥橝ngelo and Barry鈥檚 long-standing dispute with Kerry Winter and his siblings. The Winters had sued Barry for $1 billion, and just before the murders a judge ruled they had no case 鈥� ending the acrimonious lawsuit.

Even if there were elements that were legally privileged, it was decided that privilege would be waived and this information should be handed over to police, according to interviews and documents.

However, other information was held back, including some of the information related to Barry鈥檚 offshore holdings in the Bahamas and documents that detailed one of Barry鈥檚 biggest investments 鈥� in Edmonton businessman Darryl Katz鈥檚 empire. Barry had provided funding that helped Katz grow Rexall Drugs.

Tomorrow: Keeping Secrets