Reports are claiming that Michael DeGroote, one of Canada's richest men, has ended up in some hot water as a result of a nasty conflict over the investment of $112 billion in Caribbean casinos, says Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

DeGroote, who has been accused of association with the mafia, fraud and malpractice, made an investment in a gambling business with three other businessmen who allegedly have ties with the mafia.

DeGroote, a self-made billionaire, a philanthropist and an officer of the Order of Canada, has business and medical schools named after him.

According to the investigation conducted by the CBC, which went on for almost a year, has reported that DeGroote is in a series of ongoing civil lawsuits with former partners after financing Caribbean gambling enterprises.

DeGroote lent the money to a trio of men from the Toronto area to create a chain of gaming facilities in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. The three men, Francesco and Antonio Carbone, running the company Dream Corporation Inc., arranged for the financing of about 10 casinos from DeGroote.

The company started making good profits from the casinos, but eventually stopped paying DeGroote which led to him filing a series of lawsuits against Dream Inc. But by the time the lawsuits were filed in Ontario, Canada, the company found itself being funded by a different set of parties.

Judge Frank Newbould , who has so far been giving DeGroote the benefit of the doubt, ruled that De-Groote "established a strong case in fraud," but without the company's books and further investigation, according to The Leader Post.

Evidently, this wasn't the first time that the Carbones over sued for unpaid debts. Dream Group, they ran a house-painting business and a cigar-importing company. Both were pursued by banks over unpaid loans, and both had receivers appointed who found serious flaws in the companies' books, according to CBC.