Pigeon King trial begins

The jury trial of Arlan Galbraith, founder of Pigeon King International, begins today in Kitchener and is expected to last until Christmas.

He started the business in 2001, attracted thousands of investors to buy breeding pairs for about $500 and signed contracts to buy back all of the offspring at highly-profitable prices, but declared bankruptcy in June, 2008.

About $20 million worth of contracts became worthless after the bankruptcy. Investors from the Mennonite communities across North America were prominent in the business.

Galbraith is insisting on representing himself without a lawyer, defying persistent advice from the judge who handled the preliminary hearing.

Galbraith faces charges of fraud and violating the bankruptcy act.

Initially police said investors simply made a bad business decision, but after two and a half  years of investigating, laid the criminal charges.

Frankly, I can't imagine that any of the investors, especially the Mennonite farmers, imagined that the pigeons they were going to sell under contract to Galbraith were worth anywhere near that much money.

They knew, or certainly ought to have known, that this "business" could only survive so long as new investors could be suckered into buying breeding pairs.

And so I think this case against Galbraith is going to collapse, and probably before the court proceedings are finished.

That will leave us, the taxpayers who paid for the police investigation and the costs of pursuing charges in court, as the bigger money losers.