Guilty of defrauding the inventors

The president of the Union of Inventors of Quebec is a charlatan who has deceived hundreds of people who wanted to patent their ideas, and bemoaned a judge by declaring the impostor guilty on the entire line.

In short, the defendant is a charlatan who takes advantage of public credibility […]. He’s acting like a charlatan from 21^e century,” Judge Alexandre Dalmau commented Wednesday in a Montreal court.

From 2015 to 2018, 64-year-old Christian Varenne defrauded hundreds of Quebec inventors by making them pay top dollars to file patents in their name.

Its system was also well established with an attractive and misleading website, presenting the federation as an organization dedicated to helping them. Except that it was an empty shell, Farren was its only employee.

And so the latter kept his victims secret and made them pay thousands of dollars by promising to help them, even if he knew nothing of the patent filing process. The person who paid him to write the applications, during the trial, also confirmed that he wrote “anything” in the documents sent.

$1.3 million suite

“He showed complete incompetence,” said the judge, lamenting that some inventors had even lost the rights to their inventions.

With fraudulently obtained money, Farren built a $1.3 million luxury suite, which he has since rented on Airbnb.

Now that he’s been convicted of fraud, Farren’s future looks less rosy. It would not be surprising if M.^e Nicolas Amerlan is requesting his imprisonment during sentencing arguments next month, while his residence may be confiscated.

But for the victims, Friday’s ruling is already a victory in itself.

One of them, who lost about $10,000 in the case, commented, “The important thing is that he stopped, I feel good.”