Arlan Galbraith has gone straight to prison after a jury of
six men and six women returned guilty verdicts today.
Crown attorney Lynne Robinson said she will ask Justice
Gerry Taylor to sentence him to nine years for defrauding hundreds of investors
who bought breeding pairs of pigeons from Galbraith and his Pigeon King
International Inc. business in Waterloo.
Fraud was the most serious charge; he was also found guilty
of two charges of contravening the Bankruptcy Act.
Galbraith will be back in court Thurs., Dec. 12, for a bail
hearing, seeking release until his sentencing hearing.
Justice Taylor lectured Galbraith yet again, reminding him
that he was repeatedly advised to hire a lawyer. Galbraith defended himself,
but chose not to testify.
Robinson introduced evidence and witnesses to demonstrate
that Galbraith defrauded investors of about $20 million through contracts he
signed promising via five and 10-year contracts to buy back about $320 million
worth of pigeons.
He told the original investors he could afford to pay up to
$50 per breeding pair of pigeons they raised because he could sell them to
people who keep pigeons as a hobby or to race.
Later he told investors he intended to “upgrade” the birds
via cross-breeding to raise meat birds and said he planned to open the first of
four pigeon-processing plants near Cochrane by 2011.
A forensic accountant testified that Galbraith would have
needed to raise $167 million to pay existing contract holders during the three
years it would take to get the $6.4-million plant up and running and said to
raise that money, he would need to sign up more contracts that would obligate
him to pay out $1.5 billion.
In other words, the venture was bound to collapse.
Galbraith maintained throughout that the business, albeit
risky, would work and that it collapsed because staff betrayed him and “viscious”
news media reporting undermined customer confidence.
