by BETTER FARMING STAFF
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“We don’t have any (PKI contracts and any other correspondence between producers and the company),” says Staff Sgt. Wally Hogg of the Waterloo Regional Police Service’s fraud squad. “There’s several questions we want to know just, how they got involved with (PKI’s owner) Arlan (Galbraith), their expectations, then of course their paperwork like contracts and anything else that might be evidence.”
As many as 1,000 investors in four provinces and more than a dozen states, were caught with what bankruptcy officials say are worthless pigeons, when Galbraith’s pigeon breeding scheme collapsed in mid June. Typically investors handed Galbraith or his company $100,000 each but in a few cases investments reached $1 million or more.
Hogg notes that until they obtain contracts, police can’t determine whether these were made with Galbraith or with PKI. Although the company was incorporated in 2007, its bankruptcy trustee has confirmed that Galbraith had signed personal contracts with pigeon breeders before that time. The bankruptcy trustee is BDO Dunwoody Limited.
Hogg was quoted last week in the Kitchener Waterloo Record saying PKI was simply “an investment gone bad,” and had run “well for five or six years.”
Today, he clarified his statements.
“Certainly everyone was involved in an investment and it didn’t work out for them,” he says. “Now we’ll be determining whether the criminal allegations are sufficient to do an investigation.”
He admits that he has apologized to at least two callers-in about being “premature” about making a decision “without consulting the crown (attorney).”
He emphasizes that it’s the crown attorney who will make the decision on whether to prosecute – not police. “So we’ll have enough evidence there to do the prosecution,” he says.
Hogg stresses that he does not want to “scare people off” if they have complaints. “If people certainly want to make allegations then they’re more than welcome to contact us and we’ll review their information and make a determination.”
Of those who have called in, the theme of the complaint has been common: they want to know if there’s any chance of recovering the money they’ve lost. The amounts involved range from $15,000 to $250,000. Those registering complaints are individuals, families and business partners. “A couple of brothers, each of them had their own contract with Arlan,” Hogg says. “So yeah, there are families involved – groups of brothers and sisters and such.” He says his division has received calls from Iowa, Ohio and across Canada.
Last December the Iowa attorney general suggested PKI was a Ponzi scheme; in other words a business that has no market for its product other than new investors. The Maryland attorney general alleged that the company was guilty of fraud. Both states as well as South Dakota blocked further PKI sales months before the collapse.
Hogg says he hopes to have enough material and a “good cross-section” of complaints to take to the crown attorney in about two weeks. “It’s a sad situation,” he says. “A lot of people lost a lot of money and are probably going to have to restart again.” BF
PKI summary
Comments
the fraud squad is a joke, they act like this came out of nowhere when people have been whispering in their ears for years from the farming community. Having said that Many members of the farming community have concluded that this venture was not valid and discouraged anyone who talked to them about it. If real farmers participated in this without doing extensive research within the poultry industry its their own fault and should not be compensated by the government
Like any fraud or abuse by the government; it is the liability of the government to carry out their job! Fraud is a criminal offence but they (the government) who do not enforce that section of the criminal code unless it suits their agenda or happens to be a potical hot potatoe.
As a victim of fraud myself, they, the police do not care about small guys like me. As a matter of fact Mr. Hogg's fraud dept. would not even take the time to take my complaint! His officer stated it was a civil matter and walked away; if that is the case then fraud should be removed from section 380 of the criminal code. Unless of course, like I said, when it suits the agenda of the government and their pay checks.
What a sorry state of affairs the Canadian justice system has come to. Wally Hog should return to fraud prevention school and retake the class on fraud identification. It might be one thing if Galbraith claimed that his Chinese squab market had dried up and profitable sales had turned south in recent months forcing the business closure. This might sound plausible and elicit Hogg's conjecture this is "an investment gone bad." Of course there would still be the question of the incredibly lopsided balance sheet with assets of around $46,000 and liabilities of over $23,000,000 that would raise suspicions and bring demands for an investigation.
But such is not the case. In fact, four states south of the border began their own investigations and concluded Galbraith's only market was a Ponzi style market. One which by it's very nature always falls with a disgraceful clap of thunder enriching early investors at the expense of late investors, who incur painful financial losses.
In fact, Wally Hogg should have begun the investigation and closure of Pigeon King International long ago when he first got wind from Galbraith's public interviews, PKI literature, and former employees that indeed there was NO existing market for the birds, and they were simply being RESOLD to unwary new investors. Pigeon King International fits to an exact description what every fraud prevention specialist should have been trained to watch for - A PONZI SCHEME!
Shame on Hogg's squad which allowed this to grow to 1000 investors and still is in denial of fraud!!
Maybe Wally Hogg is being paid off by Arlan Galbraith.
So maybe just maybe they are finally starting to take this thing seriously. Did the fraud branch ever hear of search warrants? Get the documents and get moving I say.
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