Galbraith case now in the hands of jurors

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

by DAVE PINK

The fate of Arlan Galbraith, after four weeks of testimony in Kitchener Superior Court, is now in the hands of a six-man, six-woman jury.

Galbraith is charged with defrauding investors in his company – Pigeon King International – of millions of dollars. He was in the business of selling breeding pairs of pigeons to investors, most of them farmers, and buying back the offspring at a set price. He ran the company from 2001 until its bankruptcy in 2008.

Galbraith chose not to be represented by a lawyer and acted in his own defence.

In his charge to the jury on Tuesday, Justice G. E. Taylor cautioned that they could only consider evidence that was spoken or confirmed from the sworn-in witnesses that spoke at the trial and from the documents accepted as exhibits. Taylor said the jurors could not accept as evidence anything that Galbraith said during his questioning of the witnesses, unless it was confirmed by the people in the witness box.

Throughout the trial Taylor frequently admonished Galbraith that his statements phrased as questions to the witnesses could not be regarded as evidence, unless the witnesses agreed.

As well, Taylor told the jurors they must disregard some of the statements made by Galbraith during his closing remarks because there was no evidence to back them up. “There is no evidence that all the money that came into Pigeon King International remained in the business,” said Taylor. “There is no evidence that Pigeon King International paid cash for feed and vehicles.”

And, “although there is evidence about rumours and a fear-mongering campaign, there is no evidence as to the content of those rumours or that they were untrue.”

In summing up the case for the prosecution, Taylor said, “It is the position of the Crown that this case is about deceit, falsehood or other fraudulent means.”

Despite claims made by Galbraith during the trial, Taylor told the jury that “it is the position of the Crown that the pigeons sold by Pigeon King and Arlan Galbraith could not be for processing into meat because of the medication that they were being given.”

And, if Galbraith had intended these pigeons to be breeding stock for meat producing birds, then the Crown contends he lied to several of the investors who had given testimony, and that he lied in his newsletter to the breeders, The Pigeon Post, and in his Breeding Guide, Taylor said.

The Crown contends that Galbraith had lied to one investor when he said he had sales of pigeons to Saudi Arabia and China, the judge told the jury, and “it is the position of the Crown that Arlan Galbraith’s motive was to make enough money to retire in 10 years. He kept everything about the business secret.”

As well, said Taylor, the Crown contends that the collapse of Pigeon King International was not about the mismanagement of a business, or an error, or mistake. The Crown contends that at least three people who had worked for Pigeon King warned Galbraith that the business was unsustainable, and that they were concerned it was a Ponzi scheme or a pyramid scheme.

Taylor also told the jurors that it is Galbraith’s position “that he has been wrongfully charged with these offences.”

The jury was told that it is Galbraith’s position that one man was out to ruin the business with rumours and vicious innuendo, and that the jury should take into account the positive things that two of the witnesses had to say about Galbraith’s character.

Taylor told the jury that it is Galbraith’s position that the fact that he paid for engineering plans for a pigeon processing plant in northern Ontario demonstrates his honest intent to run the business.

And, “it is the position of Mr. Galbraith that he did not act like a true criminal,” Taylor said.

Galbraith, 66, is also facing two charges under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act – that he obtained money by false pretences in the year leading up to the bankruptcy, and that he failed to attend a 2010 meeting of his creditors after his personal bankruptcy late in 2009.

Galbraith sat quietly during the judge’s charge and did not make eye contact with the jurors.

“It is reasonable for you to conclude that a sane and sober person means to do what he actually does,” Taylor told the jury.

The jury deliberated into the early evening on Tuesday and will resume on Wednesday morning.  BF