A real estate lawyer pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud over $5,000.
The first count involved operating a Ponzi scheme over 14 years (1994-2008) defrauding individual clients of approximately $4.9 million.
The second count involved defrauding financial institutions of approximately $4.8 million between November 2007 and March 2008.
The Crown sought 10 years imprisonment; the defence sought a blended sentence of 3 years in penitentiary plus a 2-year conditional sentence.
The court imposed a concurrent 6-year penitentiary sentence, rejecting the conditional sentence component and finding that general deterrence and denunciation were paramount given the breach of trust by a member of the legal profession.
