Close X
Friday, November 15, 2024
ADVT 
National

Businessman Who Took $8.5 Million From RBC Jailed In Record Nova Scotia Fraud

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 10 Feb, 2016 12:26 PM
    KENTVILLE, N.S. — An Annapolis Valley businessman has been sentenced to four years in jail after admitting to taking $8.5 million from the Royal Bank of Canada in what could be the largest fraud case in Nova Scotia history.
     
    Gregory Paul Burden, 66, falsified records to make it look as if his Kentville, N.S., company, Advance Commission Company of Canada Ltd., was more profitable that it seemed, Crown attorney Mark Heerema said Wednesday.
     
    Those false documents were then used as collateral for loans from RBC.
     
    "The books were being cooked - and they were being charbroiled," said Heerema, noting he could find no bigger fraud among reported court decisions in the province.
     
    Burden did not use the money for a lavish life, said Heerema, but instead to build his company, which bought rights to real estate agents' advance commissions in exchange for a cut of them.
     
    "He was trying to grow a legitimate business with real employees, albeit with criminality and that's wrong," he said. "Most of the money went to this business that eventually became unsuccessful."
     
    Burden, who was sentenced in Kentville on Tuesday on three fraud charges, pleaded guilty last year to defrauding four members of an Annapolis Valley family of $400,000 who invested in his company, as well as a Quebec franchisee of his company.
     
     
    Burden had been attempting to grow his company across Canada, said Heerema.
     
    Heerema said he had asked for a sentence of between three and five years, and was happy with Judge Claudine MacDonald's four-year sentence.
     
    Heerema said the fraud was a simple one — Burden faked annual financial statements — but he would have had to create a lot of documentation to do it.
     
    "It's in some ways deceptively simple, but as I told the court ... it would have been elaborate to pull off," said Heerema. 
     
    Related charges of using forged documents were dropped.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    B.C. High Court Upholds Manslaughter Convictions For Two Men In Kelowna Father's Death

    B.C. High Court Upholds Manslaughter Convictions For Two Men In Kelowna Father's Death
    Matthew McRae and Anson Schell were sentenced to three-and-a-half years and three-years respectively for their part in the slaying of Dain Phillips during a feud in Kelowna in June, 2011.

    B.C. High Court Upholds Manslaughter Convictions For Two Men In Kelowna Father's Death

    Stephen Harper Relations With Supreme Court Not Especially Antagonistic, Study Finds

    Stephen Harper Relations With Supreme Court Not Especially Antagonistic, Study Finds
    The popular view that the relationship between the Conservative government under Stephen Harper and the Supreme Court of Canada was especially hostile appears to be misguided, a new study concludes.

    Stephen Harper Relations With Supreme Court Not Especially Antagonistic, Study Finds

    $50 Million Upgrade Approved For Busy US-Canadian Border Crossing

    $50 Million Upgrade Approved For Busy US-Canadian Border Crossing
    A busy US-Canada border crossing has been approved for a US$50-million upgrade meant to shorten wait times.

    $50 Million Upgrade Approved For Busy US-Canadian Border Crossing

    Malta To Panama: Another Immigrant Tragedy Leaves Punjab Government Unmoved

    Malta To Panama: Another Immigrant Tragedy Leaves Punjab Government Unmoved
    The Punjab government, led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, has just done the customary routine - urging the centre to intervene, setting up a control room to inform affected families and sending officials abroad to know about the missing youth.

    Malta To Panama: Another Immigrant Tragedy Leaves Punjab Government Unmoved

    Crown Wants New Murder Trial For Calgary Woman Who Tossed Newborns Into Garbage

    Crown Wants New Murder Trial For Calgary Woman Who Tossed Newborns Into Garbage
    Meredith Borowiec of Calgary was originally charged with two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of two of her children in 2008 and 2009.

    Crown Wants New Murder Trial For Calgary Woman Who Tossed Newborns Into Garbage

    B.C. And Nurses Union Pledge To Help Work-weary Nurses With 1,643 New Hires

    B.C. And Nurses Union Pledge To Help Work-weary Nurses With 1,643 New Hires
    Health Minister Terry Lake says the government, union and Health Employers Association of B.C. want to create 1,643 regular nursing positions by March 31

    B.C. And Nurses Union Pledge To Help Work-weary Nurses With 1,643 New Hires