Page 24 - Bloomberg Businessweek-October 29, 2018

Bloomberg Businessweek October 29, 2018

To represent their interests, the children hired Brian We were sitting at a corner table, backs to the wall, in an
Greenspan, a respected Toronto criminal defense lawyer Italian restaurant at Toronto’s Ritz-Carlton hotel. D’Angelo
whose past clients include Justin Bieber, Naomi Campbell, had asked me to meet him for an early lunch to discuss his
and a former Mountie jailed for smuggling narwhal tusks relationship with Sherman, his main financial backer for
across the U.S. border. Greenspan assembled a team of about 15 years. The two talked almost every day, and D’Angelo
retired police detectives to conduct a separate investigation was among the last people outside Apotex to speak with
and began pushing back publicly against the idea that the Sherman, in a late-evening phone call the Tuesday before the
absence of broken windows or locks meant the Shermans bodies were discovered. It was a regular catch-up, D’Angelo
were alone when they died. There were certainly other ways recalled, entirely unremarkable in its content.
to get in. The house had nine entrances, and friends say the “He was my best friend. He was my brother,” he said,
couple would think nothing of opening the front door for a visibly choked up at the thought of Sherman’s death. “And
stranger who rang the bell. There was also an outdoor lock- I f---ed him, because I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t be there,
box with a compartment for a key, so the Shermans’ real Mr. Tough Guy, when he needed me the most. It destroys
estate agent could hold viewings when no one was in. The me. I can’t even imagine what he felt.”
lone surveillance camera at the house was located, oddly A waiter soon arrived to pour him a glass of Brunello, sug-
enough, in the pool area, but it hadn’t been turned on for a gesting that the wine might need to breathe for a few min-
long time, perhaps years. utes. “Breathe, my ass,” D’Angelo said, raising the glass to
The family also hired a pathologist to conduct second autop- his mouth. “My mother had Brunello and Amarone on each
sies of the bodies. Among the findings that struck their investi- tit.” It was a little after 11:30.
gators as most significant, according to a person familiar with D’Angelo was wearing a green shirt with a chain-link
their work, were narrow markings on both victims’ wrists— pattern and a silky finish, untucked over trim jeans. In his
evidence that, although no bindings were found at the scene, left ear, beneath a mop of thinning black hair, was a single
their hands had been tied at some point. Also odd was the posi- diamond earring, and he had chunky rings on both hands.
tion of Barry’s legs, crossed in front of his body in a manner He handled the ordering, and servers soon arrived with a
that hardly suggested the thrashing of a suicide. heaping caprese salad and an antipasti plate piled high with

52 The private investigators briefed the police on their con- pork and duck prosciutti, salami, and manchego and truffle
clusion that a murder-suicide couldn’t be the correct expla- cheeses. More wine followed.
nation, the person said. More than a month after the bodies The two men had met in the early
were found, police officially endorsed that view. On Jan. 26 2000s. D’Angelo was in the juice trade,
a homicide detective, Susan Gomes, told reporters that the and he’d heard that Sherman owned
police were now describing the case as “a double-homicide a state-of-the-art fruit-concentrate
investigation” and that “both Honey and Barry Sherman plant he was planning to close down.
were in fact targeted.” Asked what had convinced police, (Sherman had invested in the plant
Gomes replied “six weeks of evidence and its review” and at the urging of an Orthodox Jewish
refused to elaborate. financier, Stephen Mernick, who’d
This short briefing remains the most recent substantive once attempted to engineer a $65 mil-
update from Toronto police, a level of reticence unusual lion deal to buy PTL Club, the televan- D’Angelo in 2009
even for Canadian cops, who tend to be tight-lipped. A gelist TV network founded by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.)
detective leading the inquiry, Brandon Price, didn’t respond D’Angelo went to see Sherman at Apotex, and the billion-
to requests for comment; on Oct. 19 a spokeswoman told aire took a liking to his latest suitor. Instead of simply sell-
Bloomberg Businessweek that the force had no new informa- ing him the juice plant, Sherman proposed a partnership,
tion to provide. which soon grew to include a small brewery he owned next
In this vacuum, the theorizing about the Shermans has door. Initially, D’Angelo tried to find buyers for its equipment
taken on a Murder on the Orient Express quality, with everyone at a decent price, and when he couldn’t, the pair decided to
a potential suspect. During more than 40 years in the gener- become beer barons instead.
ics industry, Sherman had cost his competitors billions of dol- Sherman soon became D’Angelo’s primary financier and FROM LEFT: RENE JOHNSON/TORONTO STAR/ZUMA PRESS; CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR/ZUMA PRESS
lars. His fierce conflict with his cousins, the Winters, was also adviser, underwriting frenetic marketing campaigns for their
well-known. But more suggestive, to many, was Sherman’s new beer brand, Steelback, and other products including an
affinity, if not affection, for inadvisable financial relationships. energy drink called Cheetah Power Surge. D’Angelo’s flair
for self-promotion saw him become something of a minor
IV. MR. TOUGH GUY Canadian celebrity. He starred in his own ads—including one
memorable performance in which he prompted Ben Johnson,
“They’re f---ing criminals, that’s what they are,” Frank the sprinter who’d been stripped of an Olympic gold medal
D’Angelo said into his phone. He quickly hung up. “F---ing for using steroids, to proclaim, “I Cheetah all the time!”—and
banks. Gangsters. And they say Italians are gangsters.” belted out the national anthem for Canadian Football League