by DAVE PINK
Arlan Galbraith, the man charged with defrauding farmers throughout North America of millions of dollars, asked the lead witness at his Superior Court trial on Wednesday if he had conspired with “the Amish mafia” to bring him down.
“There’s no such thing as an Amish mafia,” William Top told the court. “What kind of a question is that?”
Galbraith, the sole owner of the now bankrupt Pigeon King International, is on trial in Kitchener, charged with defrauding investors in his pigeon supply business. In addition, he is facing four more charges under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act in connection with the alleged fraud.
Investors, mostly farmers and many of them Pennsylvania Amish, would buy breeding pairs of pigeons from Galbraith with a promise that he would buy back the offspring and sell these “high-end” birds to racing enthusiasts. But Top testified earlier that as more and more people agreed to be “growers” for Pigeon King they were sold the pigeons that were purchased from those very first investors. Top said that he saw no evidence that these “sporting” were being sold to the people they were intended for.
Galbraith has chosen not to hire a lawyer and is defending himself.
Top, a former employee of Pigeon King, also refuted another suggestion that he was part of a conspiracy with Better Farming magazine and another man to discredit Galbraith.
Top was hired by Galbraith in August 2005 to develop a market for the pigeons in the United States, but quit after a falling out with Galbraith the following February.
Galbraith asked Top if he regretted his “stupid” decision to quit the best job he had ever had.
“What you were running was a corrupt business,” Top replied. “I take pride in what I did. I can hold my head up high.”
Top testified that he was well paid and enjoyed the job until he realized that the business model was unsustainable. The initial investors were making money, but subsequent investors stood to lose. Top said that if he had stayed on the job he would have earned enough to pay off the debts from his failed duck farming operation, but “I’m not going to do it on the bankruptcy of others.”
In response to other Galbraith questions, Top said: “You’re so far out of line I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
Top said that he received threatening phone calls from several of the initial “growers” after he approached the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and local police departments with his concerns about Pigeon King International. “I had lots of calls and threats, and the only ones calling me were those at the beginning of this Ponzi scheme.”
Another witness, Mark Wolfe, testified that he worked for Pigeon King International for about a year beginning in the late winter of 2006, but quit when it became obvious that the business plan was flawed.
“My role was in sales support, to provide information and reassure people that we were there to help,” said Wolfe. But over time his role changed, he said, and Galbraith was encouraging him to sell more pigeons.
Meanwhile, Wolfe said, members of the Amish community were beginning to question the legitimacy of the business, and an Amish newspaper was reporting that the business plan seemed unsustainable. “I could see there was a lot of negative talk in the Amish community,” he said.
Wolfe testified that it was about this time when Galbraith changed the focus of the business, and began talking about selling the pigeons for meat, as squabs, and not as sporting birds. “That was the solution people wanted to hear,” said Wolfe.
He said Galbraith talked about building a pigeon handling facility in Cochrane, but doesn’t think anything came of it.
And Wolfe testified that he warned a friend in Iowa not to invest more heavily in pigeons.
“It got to the point where I realized it wasn’t going to last,” Wolfe told the court. “I knew that eventually there was potential for collapse.”
The trial, before Justice G.E. Taylor, is expected to continue for another six to eight weeks. BF
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