Lender Initiates Receivership for Firm Embroiled in Skills Fund Scandal
A Canadian bank is going to court in an attempt to recoup $4.5 million by forcing receivership on a company caught in Ontario’s Skills Development Fund scandal.
In an application filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, National Bank of Canada alleges that Keel Digital Solutions and its subsidiary Get A-Head as well as a third company, Amerimind AI, incorporated in the United States, have not made payments on loans and Mastercard accounts since last March.
“It appears that there is no plan in place to repay indebtedness,” said National Bank’s application for a court-ordered “receiver” under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, filed in late July. Receivers are considered neutral parties and can take control of a company’s assets and operations to protect creditors’ interests. In some cases, receivership can ultimately lead to bankruptcy or liquidation. National Bank did not respond to the Star’s request for comment.
A virtual court hearing is now scheduled for Oct. 5.
Keel Digital, the parent company of Get A-Head, offered government-funded virtual mental health supports for students and peer training for first responders, but last fall it was swept into the controversy that followed the auditor general’s scathing report on the apparent politicization of Premier Doug Ford’s $2.5-billion Skills Development Fund.
The public paper trail behind Keel’s troubles with the province did not begin with the fund, which falls under the Ministry of Labour.
Officially, it started last fall — with the Ministry of Colleges and Universities — when the government said it gave the Ontario Provincial Police the results of a forensic audit into payments to Keel. It was not until the new year, in January, that Keel’s contracts with the skills fund were questioned through a lawsuit that cited issues under both ministries.
During daily opposition attacks in the fall question period, Ford and then-labour minister David Piccini defended decisions to award millions of dollars to applicants despite low scores assigned by ministry staff evaluating funding applications.
Piccini is awaiting the findings of an investigation by integrity commissioner Cathryn Motherwell into alleged ethics breaches. However, in Thursday’s cabinet shuffle, Ford appointed him as minister of infrastructure, which oversees massive public construction projects and a 2026-2027 budget that is expected to reach $3.2 billion.
As the media storm about the fund ensued in 2025, the Ontario government announced it had sent the results of a forensic audit into Keel and Get A-Head’s 2023 contract with the Ministry of Colleges and Universities to the OPP for review by its anti-racket squad. The OPP later launched an investigation. Keel and Get A-Head claimed the government was using them as a political ”scapegoat” to deflect from the controversy.
National Bank’s legal documents note the audit, the criminal investigation — and the province’s next move.
In early January, Ontario filed a civil lawsuit against Keel and Get A-Head, claiming they owed $22.5 million to the colleges and universities ministry and another $2.7 million to the labour ministry’s skills development fund for “false and misleading reporting to artificially increase” the funding it received. Keel and Get A-Head filed a defence and a counterclaim for $98.7 million in damages.
“As a result of this litigation,” National Bank’s legal document noted, “the respondents have lost their primary source of revenue and have no other material customers.”
Amerimind AI was not named in the government lawsuits, but National Bank’s filing says it was incorporated in Delaware and that its president is Rob Godfrey, one of Keel’s directors.
In 2023, Amerimind AI guaranteed “all of the debts and liabilities” of Keel and Get A-Head, the bank’s court documents said.
The Star sent Godfrey three requests for comment through Keel’s spokesperson, who said he would not be responding.
Asked about National Bank’s attempt to force the companies into receivership, Keel’s former chief operating officer Jay Fischbach said, “Keel and Amerimind do not have any ongoing business activities and all employees, including myself and the CEO have been terminated. Over 100 employees also lost their jobs due to this baseless attack on the company.
“We were all terminated between Nov. 25 and Apr. 26,” Fischbach said, a decision “approved by the board.” Godfrey is listed as a director of Keel Digital Solutions.
Keel and Get A-Head, he wrote in an email, were “accused of fraud without evidence and without the government following its standard practice of providing its draft audit findings” for the company’s response.
“The real loser in this (are) the students and first responders who relied on the Keel platform for mental health,” he said. “To this end over 25,000 students and parents had signed a petition requesting these mental health supports to return.”
National Bank’s documents said that once Keel and the other companies stopped making payments late last March, the bank reviewed the account activity and found “the respondents may have diverted their banking activity to TD Bank, leaving (National Bank) with no visibility as to the respondents’ operations.” A TD Bank spokesperson said the company could not comment since “this is a matter before the courts.”
Keel, Get A-Head and Amerimind AI all shared a Toronto office on the 35th floor at 2 Bloor St. E., National’s documents said, but they “no longer occupy those premises.”
This article was first reported by The Star
