HISHAM ALARD did a double take when he tuned into a television news show recently about a pizza franchise scam where Canadians lost their life savings.
Alard was among a group of pizza franchise buyers who hoped to make lots of dough, but ended up being burned by the chain, operated out of Toronto.
CTV primetime investigative news show W-5 aired a full feature on the pizza pie- in-the-sky titled Taking Your Dough. It also reported Toronto police had been investigating the chain and even the same man with whom Alard struck his deal. That man was Torontonian Reza Solhi. Solhi could not be reached for comment.
According to W-5, there were dozens of cases just like Alard’s with similar franchises going back years, all run under different names, including 3 for 1 Pizza, the Pizza One, Pizza Uno and Anthony’s Kitchens. Toronto police uncovered a trail that went back a decade.
As Alard watched the piece air, he saw his own experiences flash before his eyes in the stories from a dozen other investors.
As an immigrant, Alard was looking for a business to run when he arrived here from Syria in the spring of 2004. On the hunt for prospects, he spotted a glossy ad about a pizza franchise while leafing through the paper one day.
Pizza One offered prospective franchise buyers an easy recipe for making lots of dough — their choice of prime locations and help with financing — up to $150,000 over and above the buyer’s $50,000 price tag.
Alard jumped at it.
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