by BETTER FARMING STAFF
A Cochrane, Ontario area resident is paying $225,000 for the former home of the founder of a failed pigeon breeding scheme.
The resident was one of four who delivered bids in the living room of the house on the property Arlan Galbraith had named Sacred Dove Ranch. Bids for the 300-acre property began at $100,000.
About 30 to 40 people attended the sale, held today, says Kingsley Gardner, vice-president of Gardner Auctions Inc. The London, Ontario firm handled the sale.
Gardner says the buyer did not want his name disclosed.
Creditors petitioned Galbraith into personal bankruptcy in 2009, more than a year after the failure of his Waterloo-based pigeon breeding business, Pigeon King International. The collapse of the business left hundreds of pigeon breeders on both sides of the border millions of dollars out of pocket and saddled with thousands of worthless birds.
Creditors identified the sale of Galbraith’s home near Cochrane as a top priority at a January meeting in Kitchener. The sale amount was $75,000 less than what Galbraith had estimated the property’s net realizable value in a document supplied to the trustee, BDO Canada Ltd.
Staff Sgt. Dale Roe of the Waterloo Regional Police Service’s fraud squad says an investigation into the business dealings of PKI is ongoing. The police service and the RCMP have been investigating the business since 2008. No charges have been laid. Roe would not say whether individuals are also being investigated: “It wouldn’t be proper for me to say beyond that scope.”
He says he is not aware of Galbraith’s current whereabouts. “I’m not sure if our investigators are aware of it or not. They may well be, I don’t know.”
Susan Taves, a spokesperson and vice president of BDO has said creditors will be updated regarding the payout of funds once these are realized from the sale of the property. No funds have been paid out to date, she wrote in a June e-mail.
There are about 550 former pigeon breeders and holding barn operators who could file claims against Galbraith and another 450 with claims against PKI. Preliminary reports for the bankruptcies indicate there are 123 claims filed against PKI, of which 58 are from Canadian breeders and 50 from U.S. breeders for nearly $39 million. The reports also indicate that 35 Canadian and six U.S. breeders filed personal claims against Galbraith for more than $15 million.
Kingsley says the Cochrane property sale will close before mid-December, which is when the new owner is scheduled to take possession. BF
PKI summary
Comments
Let me see if I understand this correctly - there is somewhere around $54 million in claims against Galbraith, yet PKI investors are fixated on a property that sold for $225,000, but probably will net creditors almost literally nothing once real estate fees and bankruptcy trustee fees, not to mention any back taxes, are paid.
All of this goes to show that PKI investors were not only not very shrewd investors, they are also sore losers
"ALL OF THIS GOES TO SHOW THAT INVESTORS WERE NOT ONLY SHREWD INVESTORS, THEY ARE ALSO SORE LOSERS?" ITS TOO BAD WE CAN NOT SEE WHO AUTHORS THESE COMMENTS, IT SOUNDS TO ME AS THOUGH ONLY ARLAN HIMSELF WOULD BE CAPABLE OF WRITING SOMETHING SO INSENSITVE. THIS WHOLE AFFAIR INVOLVING THE ETHICS AND BANKRUPCTY OF PIGEON KING HAS BEEN A SHAMBLES. THE TRUSSTEE IN BANKRUPCTY WILL BE CERTAIN TO COLLECT ALL THE MONEY THEY FEEL THAT THEY ARE OWED.THE GOV'T WILL COLLECT THEIR TAXES AND THE POLICE HAVE STILL NOT LAID ANY CHARGES. NOW, TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY, THE WHEREABOUTS OF ARLAN GAILBRAITH ARE REPORTED TO BE UNKNOWN. YOU MAY CALL THE INVESTORS SORE LOSERS, TO ME IT SOUNDS LIKE THEY ARE DISTRAUGHT, DISCOURAGED AND FRUSTRATED!!!
CrimeBustersNow
Too bad the victims don't take a cue from the Madoff Ponzi scam and other Ponzi scams "South of the Boarder" and sue the authorities who were told repeatedly this was a Ponzi scheme. And notwithstanding being told and mounds of evidence and leads given to them, nonetheless a W. R. Fraud Detective insisted on appearing on CTV assuring the world they "could find nothing illegal in this scam" which encouraged a predicable serge of new victims for the December 2007 deadline Galbraith had set for the best "by-back" price.
And CBC gratuitously stated to the world.... "This is clearly legal in Canada." Who was "yanking their chains???" One might muse.
What a tangled web etc, etc, etc,
And banks (many blindsided by the personnel at Galbraith's bank who should have suspected something on their own and certainly after I called; made personal appearances at the bank, wrote an email, then when ignored, posted it to the W.W.Web) continued to loan millions, also blindsided by the BBB's "A1" rating (given out to companies like candy at a piñata bashing) until two days after PKI collapsed and I personally contacted and "chewed out" the BBB.
Against all this perceived "credibility" I was working diligently to shut down this abhorrent, mathematically doomed Ponzi scheme. Ten of millions of dollars and continued misery could have been adverted even at that juncture.
I believe many victims have a solid case against authorities and others with a fiduciary duty.
That's the truth without doubt.... And that's the reality as I see it!
dave CBNOw
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