DEBT BY CHOCOLATE | 

Wheeler dealer who owes €11m over failed investment now delivers cakes around Dublin

De Renzy first hit the headlines as a wannabe property developer during Ireland’s Celtic Tiger era.

Eugene Masterson

Today at 10:00

Meet the cupcake delivery man who owes €11 million to a Canadian businessman for a failed medical cannabis business — and is in dispute with a major Hollywood producer over millions more.

These photographs show wheeler-dealer Graeme De Renzy (57) hand delivering cakes in Dublin last week.

However, the Castleknock native is going to have to be very busy if he is to pay off the mountain of debts he owes.

De Renzy first hit the headlines as a wannabe property developer during Ireland’s Celtic Tiger era.

However, he was previously declared bankrupt here for one scheme which went belly up.

Now De Renzy has had a judgment for more than CAN$21 million (€11 million) declared against him in a court in Canada.

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Irish wheeler dealer who owes €11m after failed investment now delivers cupcakes in Dublin

The Dubliner confirmed to us that he has no money or assets in either of his registered Irish or British companies, but intends to pay the whopping €11m debt back through deals he claims he has with a mysterious French-African company.

That’s not his only problem.

American film producer and studio executive Cary Granat — who is responsible for the first three Scream films as well as The Chronicles of Narnia series of movies and has grossed billions of dollars through his movie company’s productions — claims De Renzy owes him several million euro over a failed investment the Irishman promised him.

Canadian businessman Daniel Veniez maintains De Renzy has cost him €11m for a planned medicinal cannabis company, and secured a recent judgment in British Columbia against him.

Mr Veniez initially sued De Renzy for “fraud, fraudulent representation and breach of contract”.

The judgment was given after De Renzy declined to contest the application, but he denied any suggestion of fraud to the Sunday World.

The duo claiming De Renzy owes them millions maintain there are numerous other individuals they’re aware of who’ve been caught out in similar schemes with De Renzy, and they are warning other potential investors to steer clear of him.

De Renzy is currently delivering cupcakes and baked cakes across Dublin in his white Cherokee Jeep for his wife’s home bakery company.

But he has been in trouble in the courts before.

In 2019 a US court found in favour of Caribbean based company called Guardian Coin Inc. which had an award lodged against De Renzy for US$50 million in a case involving a cryptocurrency business.

The Dubliner also made headlines here in 2002 when he launched a ‘double your money’ scheme for a property development company.

He tried to raise €20 million to build apartments in Co Wexford and at the time financial expert Eddie Hobbs warned “anybody who considers investing in this company should take extreme care.”

In 2019, it was reported that De Renzy and his companies also tried to buy the leasehold of the famous Chrysler building in New York for $115 million. The deal did not materialise.

After not responding to an email we sent to him several weeks ago, we learned De Renzy was delivering cakes across the capital, so we ordered a dozen cupcakes for €35, including delivery.

When De Renzy arrived at a north Dublin address, our reporter questioned him about allegations being made about him by Mr Granat and Mr Veniez, and he said they were “an ongoing matter”.

When put to him that people would be curious as to how someone delivering cakes can, at the same time, be trying to lease the likes of the Chrysler building for more than $100 million, he replied: “I have nothing to say on those two matters.”

De Renzy confirmed he had once been declared bankrupt in 2009 and it was “a historical matter”.

Mr Granat told the Sunday World he initially met De Renzy in New York through a group of investors and hoped he would invest in a new entertainment project.

“He was investing in a company that was putting in $15 million into a music and location based experience that was opening up in Las Vegas and several other locals, as well as the Metaverse, which was a south east Asian concept,” Mr Granat recalled.

“He owes us at this point $15 million. We made deals predicated upon [this] and we have had to pay several million dollars to people because of deals that we relied upon him similarly.”

Mr Veniez is a respected Canadian businessman, who previously ran for political office in Canada and has been a successful entrepreneur for over 20 years.

When Canada legalised the sale of marijuana nearly four years ago, Mr Veniez and some investors started up a company to source and manufacture medicinal cannabis to trade in that country. They needed investment of $40 million and through a third party were introduced to De Renzy, who met Mr Veniez in a hotel in London.

Mr Veniez said De Renzy initially offered $35 million in equity and a further $100 million in credit.

Despite numerous promises over several months the money never came through.

“I ended up losing my company and I had to get myself out of a mess I was in because of De Renzy’s commitments,” he fumed.

“I had to clean up the mess. I took on the financial obligation because my word was in play. The mess cost me about $12 million to do that.”

The total bill, in fact, came to $17 million, which De Renzy said he would pay.

“He didn’t produce anything so we filed a statement of claim in the British Columbia court and we got a judgment,” said Mr Veniez.

After our encounter with De Renzy with the cupcakes at the Dublin address, he called our reporter an hour later and said he would pay Mr Veniez what he was owed.

In a call a few days later, he insisted again he would pay the €11m and said he was still interested in investing with Mr Granat.

When we put it to him that our investigation had determined he had no money or assets in either of his two companies, he confirmed: “There are no assets. There isn’t. There has been little or no activity.”

He said he represents a family called the Viviets and that money would be coming through them.

De Renzy refused to put us in touch with either the Viviet family or their lawyers.

“It’s not a public matter, it’s a job and role I took on a number of years ago and it’s been hugely successful,” he claimed.

“Proceeds from a share I take from those investments is where I will be paying Daniel from and also with investing [with Mr Granat].