Bail breach trial hears false passport charge
Edmonton Journal
Published: Monday, April 24, 2006
Former Alberta chief parliamentary counsel Michael Ritter went on trial today for breaching his bail conditions by applying for a passport under a false name.
He is accused of applying for a passport in March of 2005 under the name Michael Philippe d’Orleans after being required to surrender his passport as a condition of his bail.
Ritter faces trial in the largest money-laundering cases in the province’s history.
He is accused of conspiring with Wall Street energy trader Dan Gordon to launder $43 million US, which Gordon had stolen from the Merrill Lynch brokerage firm. Gordon was sentenced to 42 months in prison and he repaid the money.
Ritter, 48, is also charged with fraud in a $290 million US “Ponzi scheme,” where money from later investors is used to pay
earlier ones, giving future investors the mistaken appearance the investments are sound.
At a bail hearing in 2003, he was ordered to surrender all his passports, including one from Belize, which does not have an extradition treaty with Canada.
RCMP say they later learned Ritter, allegedly with the assistance of his lawyer Casey O’Byrne, had obtained a Belizean passport under an alias.
Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology...
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ReplyDeleteJohn Grishamesque. O'Byrne will probably at least get disbarred, eh? Would have been pretty sweet if they could have pulled it off, though... sipping rum in the Belizeian sun, with a direct line to the Swiss banks for when you need to make payroll for your army of local bodyguards, chefs, and escorts... No risk, no reward.
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