Pigeon King sentencing delayed by two weeks

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Ontario’s former Pigeon King must wait two more weeks to learn his fate. Arlan Galbraith, convicted in December of fraud and held since then in custody, will appear for sentencing in Kitchener Superior Court on March 18.

Galbraith appeared briefly in a Kitchener courtroom today to confirm the new date. Sentencing had been originally scheduled for today.

Assistant Crown attorney Anita Etheridge told Justice G.E. Taylor that last month Galbraith retained Toronto lawyer, David North as counsel. The lawyer had a previous commitment and could not make Galbraith’s scheduled sentencing today.

North could not be reached for comment.

Etheridge noted that about 50 victim impact statements have been presented to the convicted fraudster and his lawyer. She did not know if they would all be read out in court on March. 18.

Galbraith now sports a full beard and appears to have lost weight since a jury convicted him Dec. 5 of fraud over $5,000 and two other counts under the Bankruptcy Act. The sole proprietor of Pigeon King International, who defended himself in court against the charges, developed a Ponzi scheme that involved selling breeding pigeon pairs to farmers and buying back their offspring. Initially, he claimed the birds would be used for sport. Later, he described his operation as a multiplier flock for squab production and said he had plans to build a processing plant.

Galbraith’s Waterloo-based company flew high in the mid-2000s, with nearly 1,000 investors in Canada and the United States and as much as $41.6 million changing hands annually.

But in 2008 the business collapsed and investors were left with birds for which there was no market. BF