by BETTER FARMING STAFF
A key witness in the Crown's case against alleged pigeon Ponzi mastermind Arlan Galbraith withdrew from a victims' meeting Thursday. Bill Top a former Pigeon King International salesman, who joined the conference held in Kitchener, by telephone from his Sydney Nova Scotia home, told Better Farming he objected to the participation of Mark DeWitt, another former PKI salesman.
Top says after he stopped working for PKI he told DeWitt, who now lives in Ottawa and some other pigeon salesmen who followed him, that PKI was a scam.
Assistant crown attorney Lynn Robinson, who called the meeting, confirms that Top left the meeting after she heard him object to DeWitt's presence.
It's a problem because Robinson needs all the former employees to prove her case, she says — not just ones that get along with each other. "I need Mr. DeWitt to testify. I need to have a positive relationship with him at least as far as that goes."
It's true of any case, she says, using a gang stabbing as an example. "I have to be nice to the other gang members, talk to them and try to get their evidence from them because I need it. And they have right to be informed as to what's expected of them and they have the right to be informed of how everything's going."
Robinson expresses concern about the low turnout at the meeting. Only 10 people attended in person and another two joined in via telephone, she says. Three were former employees of Galbraith’s. The others were former investors in his scheme, Pigeon King International. The meeting was open to the 917 people who filed statements with police.
"I think people are feeling what I call witness fatigue or victim fatigue," she says. That the meeting occurred in the middle of crop season didn't help. "We had regrets extended to us from a number of (members in) the Mennonite community," she says. Her office is working on ways to exchange information with victims.
“They are entitled to talk to the court or to file a victim impact statement and we just want them all to know that,” she says.
Galbraith's Pigeon King breeding scheme offered pigeon breeding pairs for as much as $500 and bought back offspring for up to $50 each. After the company failed in 2008 the Waterloo Regional Police Service's fraud squad and the RCMP began a joint investigation, acting on allegations the operation was a Ponzi scheme.
They charged Galbraith in December 2010 with one count of fraud over $5,000 and four counts under sections 198 (2) and 199 (b) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. He has not been convicted of any charges. Police estimate about 1,000 people invested a total of $20 million in the scheme, hoping for profitable returns.
Robinson says she would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Galbraith began the venture with a Ponzi in mind. "But at a certain point the numbers that are in his own handwriting make it clear that he who is writing those numbers knows that he was defrauding people," she says.
Money from later investors was used to pay earlier investors. The only benefit to Galbraith was a "modest" increase to his lifestyle. "That's less money than I make," Robinson says of the $50,000 a year that she says Galbraith drew from the company. She notes that assets the company helped fund, such as a home in Kitchener and an estate near Cochrane, Ontario, were already seized through bankruptcy actions.
Both Galbraith and his business have been declared bankrupt.
She says the search for funds was why the police investigation into the case took so long. "The police wanted to make sure that they left no stone unturned searching for where did the money go."
Galbraith has not yet indicated whether he will plead guilty or fight the charges. He claims that he is gravely ill but Robinson hasn't seen anything to substantiate the claim.
If Galbraith pleads guilty the judge will reduce his sentence, she predicts. She could not estimate by how much. "It's really hard to talk numbers at this point because I don't know exactly how much he'll admit."
Sometimes what happens is that an individual admits to part of a charge but not all of it and then a decision has to be made about whether to continue to fight the portion of the issue that hasn't been acknowledged. "That's why I want to talk to everybody," she says. If three quarters of those who lost money "don't want to participate, I need to know that before I go into negotiate."
While she says she wants to see Galbraith punished, "we also have to work on healing the community." There was nothing criminal about the behaviour of anyone else involved in the scheme, but there is a basic morality issue, she says. Some investors profited from the venture while others lost their homes. “Everybody has to come to terms with the fact that their neighbour got in and got out and that’s where their money is.“ Those who made money have to come to terms with having made gains from "a criminal scheme" that may have bankrupted a neighbour.
Robinson estimates that there will be movement in the case in the next couple of months and by Christmas it will be known whether they are dealing with a guilty plea or a preliminary hearing and trial.
Robinson says no one in the room seemed surprised with what she had to say. She declined to identify those who attended in person. She explained that she did not know what their wishes were concerning remaining anonymous.
Those who want to file victim impact statements or keep in touch about the proceedings can contact Laurie Black Rooney at 519-741-3300x2278.
Galbraith’s next scheduled court date in Kitchener is August 24. He could not be located reached for comment. Details surrounding his release on bail are subject to a publication ban. None of the charges or allegations against him have been proven in court. BF
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Comments
If Galbraith's financial reward was $50,000 annually, his "take" of the $20 million put up by investors, was only about half a million dollars.
In addition, since early investors profited from their investment, while later investors lost theirs, both the victims and the beneficiaries of this Ponzi scheme appeared to be farmers, rather than Galbraith himself.
I'd be thinking that if I was an early investor, and made out like a bandit, while my neighbour, who was a later investor, lost his house, I'd be wanting to stay anonymous too.
Once again, so much for the nonsense that we, in the farm community, are "all in it together".
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Investors i.e. farmers must have had sun in there eyes if they believed that the PKI was a viable , long term venture. I was even more shocked when I seen that some pretty (i assumed) intelligent business men bought into the plan.
Money and greed is what makes ponzi schemes work as everyone hopes there is another sucker too buy into it and if you are early investor the rewards are great
I agree, you can't fix stupid. The author of this post looks quite stupid himself.... spelling and grammar mistakes. And to assume that people didn't know that this wasn't a viable long term venture...no risk, no reward. Life is a gamble, my friend. Oh, and to assume that the were all men? Try again. Intelligent farmers are women as well.
Why is it assumed that investors in Pigeon King International were either greedy or stupid. I can assure the "Can't fix stupid" writer that my wife and I were neither greedy or stupid. We did not enter into this scheme with the intention of getting rich. We researched the claims put forward by Pigeon King, we talked to other farmers. We beleived ... The entire plan by Arlan Gailbraith was cleverly concocted. Many respected and successful neighbours of ours fell victim to this alleged ponzi scheme as well. To determine whether or not Arlan Gailbraith's intentions were pure, you have only to ask yourself, "did he or did he not have a use or end market for these birds"? The answer is very simple, NO,he did NOT. Without a legitimate end market for these pigeons, every dollar he took from new unsuspecting investors was a dollar he KNEW they would NEVER get back. MY PHONE NUMBER:
Comment modified by editors for libel and to delete phone number.
We had several Amish neighbors getting ready to send their life savings or about to get loans to get in on this deal.
Pigion King targeted the Amish in Wi. I am sure they were targeted in other States as well. The Amish won't go to court. Too bad.
of all people I would expect a farmer to know pigeons are not worth hundreds of dollars. Unless these pigeons do something the ones that farmers shoot with their shotguns don't do, there must be a question why? I think part of it is that whether or not the farmer does question why, they assume that public business offerings are honest and legal, and that they can count on the courts to uphold contracts, and insurance and so-forth to protect them, and think that things will go the way they planned, truth is it did go that way for alot of them for a long time. It would take a pretty smart man to come to conclude how Arlan's business functioned, just from the proposition, unless they already had an understanding of the Ponzi Scheme. With updated internet research, and applying basic grade 9 math with 20/20 hindsight vision, the people who fell for it were not necessarily stupid, maybe a little, but we can all be a little stupid in circumstances. The difficult part is that the transfer of wealth is complete and money that has previously been earned fairly in the eyes of the winners is already re-invested or spent, and that is going to be difficult to get transferred back to the losers.
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