Family seeking $1.3M owed by Alberta separatist leader Dennis Modry after court order

Relatives of a prominent Alberta separatist who recently met with U.S. officials are upset that he has failed to pay back more than $1.3 million that a judge found he misappropriated from elderly relatives.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled in March 2025 that Dennis Modry, co-founder and former CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project, misappropriated the money from the joint bank account of his aunt and uncle who suffered from Alzheimer’s and dementia, respectively, and ordered him to pay the money back with interest.

Verna Holmes, who filed the civil suit against Modry, told CBC News he has not paid back any money, despite the court order.

“You go through all of that and then for what? He still gets away with it,” Holmes said. 

“He took advantage of vulnerable people, and he was in a position himself to know what he was doing.”

Modry, who lives in Edmonton and currently serves as chair of the Alberta Prosperity Project’s board of directors, told CBC News he found the court ruling surprising and disappointing.

He said he has asked his lawyer to negotiate a settlement for a much smaller amount. 

“I'd like to work out a settlement, just out of frustration, just for this to go away. But there's no way I'm going to agree to a settlement of the magnitude that they're referring to,” he said. 

According to court documents from October 2025, no appeal has been filed and the window to appeal has expired.

Lori Williams, an associate professor of political science at Mount Royal University in Calgary,  called the details in the court order “deeply disturbing” for such a high-profile figure in Alberta. 

She said it raises “serious questions about his character, about his credibility and about the credibility of anything that he's associated with.”

Modry called her assessment a “typical slam comment.” 

In 2014, according to the court decision, Modry was given power of attorney for his uncle Fred Bodnar and Bodnar’s wife, Laurette, who have both since died. Holmes is Laurette’s niece.

The order details how he took large sums out of their accounts — including savings and mutual funds, as well as the proceeds from the sale of their car and Parksville, B.C., house — writing cheques to himself.