Category: Michael Ritter Scandal

I’m clearly behind in my Michael Ritter relate posts…. here is a story from the Edmonton Journal on July 1st…

Ritter didn’t breach court order: lawyer
Charles Rusnell, Journal Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, July 01, 2006

EDMONTON – Edmonton businessman Michael Ritter made no serious attempt to hide the fact that he changed his name and obtained a Belizean passport under his new name while he awaited an extradition hearing on charges he took part in a $250-million fraud scheme.

This is proof, his lawyer told court Friday, that Ritter did not intend to breach a court-ordered recognizance that he not obtain another passport.
“Mr. Ritter, like Col. Mustard, has left clues all over the place so the police can go around and pick them up,” lawyer Robbie Davidson told court on the final day of Ritter’s trial for breach of recognizance, a charge that carries a penalty of up to two years in jail.

The charges against Ritter stem from an October 2003 order. Ritter, Alberta’s former chief parliamentary counsel, had been indicted in the United States for his alleged role in a $250-million US Ponzi scheme, in which money from later investors is used to pay earlier ones. He had been arrested by RCMP on behalf of American authorities.

To gain bail, Ritter signed a recognizance in which he agreed to surrender his passport, not to get another one and not to leave Alberta. The wealthy businessman also put up $100,000 in cash and $150,000 worth of security in his house.

On Friday, Davidson focused much of his summation on Ritter’s interaction with Casey O’Byrne, the lawyer who helped him get out of jail on bail. In earlier testimony, O’Byrne acknowledged helping Ritter get released. He also admitted signing Ritter’s name-change application, but said he didn’t read the document and thought it was for a name change in Canada, not Belize, where Ritter is also a citizen. O’Byrne also conceded his signature appears on Ritter’s passport application, but he insisted he had no recollection of signing the document or discussing it with Ritter.

Davidson argued that O’Byrne knew the terms of Ritter’s recognizance and if there had been a problem with him changing his name and obtaining a new passport, he should have told Ritter.

Crown prosecutor Greg Lepp offered a much different theory to the court. He said Ritter conspired with O’Byrne to get the Belizean passport so he could flee if his extradition became imminent.

Lepp said Ritter did not think he would get caught, and he did only after one of his employees discovered a scanned copy of the Belizean passport on Ritter’s office computer and turned it over to the RCMP.

He noted that when a judge had ordered Ritter to turn in his passports, he surrendered his Canadian passport but did not tell the court about another passport from Belize he held in his own name. He had to turn that passport in to get yet another Belizean passport, this one in the name of Adam d’Orleans.

The judge is expected to issue his ruling sometime in August.

Check out the complete Michael Ritter Chronology…

This blog has seems to have become a one-stop-shop for information dealing with former Edmonton “lawyer,” Chief Consel to the Alberta Legislative Assembly, business owner, philanthropist, and international man of financial skullduggery Michael Ritter. For the information of all daveberta readers and interested suspects, here is a chronology of all Michael Ritter related posts on this blog.

Feel free to comment and discuss.

The list will be updated as new posts are added.

Very Bad Men “The Man Without a Conscience” – Tonight (April 15, 2008)
Ritter Loses Appeal (December 11, 2007)
Michael Ritter scandal documentary (November 10, 2007)
Michael Ritter gets ten (November 1, 2006)
Where Ritter put the money (October 28, 2006)
Ritter pleads guilty (October 28, 2006)
One week left for Ritter (October 21, 2006)
Ritter gets Six (August 3, 2006)
Ritter Guilty of Passport Charge (August 2, 2006)
Fate on a Passport (August 2, 2006)
Clear as Mud. (August 2, 2006)
Ritter fails “to establish an air of reality” (July 31, 2006)
More Michael Ritter Scandal Action (July 9, 2006)
Col. Ritter in the Boardroom with the Ponzi Scheme (July 5, 2006)
The Western Standard on Ritter (June 21, 2006)
I’m sure Belize is nice in June. Ask Adam D’Orleans… err, Michael Ritter (June 20, 2006)
More Michael Ritter Madness (April 26, 2006)
The Michael Ritter Scandal Continues (April 25, 2006)
Summertime in Belize (April 24, 2006)
Michael Ritter Scandal Update (December 20, 2005)
Gordon gets 42 months for $43 billion (October 14, 2005)
Jailhouse Blues for Ritter (October 2, 2005)
The Michael Ritter Saga Continued (Sept 24, 2005)
Who let the Ritter out? Who? Who? Who? Who? (Sept 15, 2005)
When Visa Isn’t Enough: The Michael Ritter Story (Sept 14, 2005)

Here is a Michael Ritter scandal timeline provided by the Edmonton Journal on October 28, 2006.

DIARY OF A DOWNFALL

March 1, 2001: Michael Ritter’s financial services company, Newport Pacific Financial Group, hires Paul Hoag as its vice-president. Five months later, Newport hires Hoag’s wife, Susan Edwards, as office administrator.

Jan. 28, 2002: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is granted a temporary restraining order against J.T. Wallenbrock, a Los Angeles-based trust company accused of selling unregistered securities as part of a massive pyramid fraud scheme.

July 11, 2002: Hoag and Edwards tell Ritter they want out of Newport and raise concerns about the company’s relationship with J.T. Wallenbrock and its owner, Larry Osaki.

July 15, 2002: Hoag, according to Ritter, asks for a severance payment of $600,000. Ritter refuses.

August 2002: Hoag and Edwards file complaints against Ritter and Newport with the Alberta Securities Commission, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the RCMP.

September 2002: Jeremy Carter, Ritter’s executive assistant, asks Hoag to return two highly confidential files Ritter believes Hoag has taken.

Oct. 9, 2002: Ritter and his lawyer, accompanied by several Edmonton police officers, execute a civil-court search on the home of Hoag and Edwards. They seize boxes of documents allegedly taken from Newport. Ritter then sues Hoag, Edwards and two other Newport employees for $40 million, alleging a conspiracy to undermine the company and steal its clients. The lawsuit is sealed by court order, allegedly to protect Newport’s clients. The former employees later countersue for $1.5 million, claiming wrongful dismissal, harassment, theft and abuse of process.

December 2002: RCMP raid Ritter’s office and home, searching for evidence implicating him in the pyramid scheme and the laundering of $43 million US that Wall Street energy trader Dan Gordon had stolen from his employer, Merrill Lynch.The raid doesn’t come to light until The Journal obtains the search warrants three months later.

Feb. 26, 2003: The Journal and other media outlets are successful in unsealing Ritter’s lawsuit. It contains sensational allegations that he was involved in helping perpetuate a massive and fraudulent pyramid scheme in California after it was shut down by the SEC. It is also alleged Ritter fabricated parts of his resume, including his legal credentials. In a news conference, Ritter denies all the allegations and claims he is the victim of a “drive-by smear campaign” by disgruntled employees.

March 19, 2003: A judge issues an order freezing two private airplanes, a condo and an Oilers skybox, which RCMP allege were bought with money laundered by Ritter on behalf of Gordon.

Sept. 10, 2003: Ritter files a $300-million lawsuit against James H. Donell, the Los Angeles receiver hired by the SEC to handle the dismantling of J.T. Wallenbrock. The lawsuit alleges Donell used his website to connect Ritter and a company he set up in Belize called Village Capital Trust to criminal fraud.

Oct. 8, 2003: Osaki, the owner of J.T. Wallenbrock, is arrested and charged with operating a $270-million US pyramid scheme. An affidavit filed with the arrest alleges Ritter helped Osaki keep the scheme operating after American authorities had shut it down.

Oct. 28, 2003: RCMP arrest Ritter after he is indicted in Los Angeles on charges of securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, money laundering, criminal contempt and other charges in relation to the pyramid scheme. Ritter is released on $250,000 bail and denies the charges. Carter, his executive assistant, is also charged. American authorities say Ritter could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

Feb. 7, 2004: After pleading guilty in New York, Gordon tells American authorities that Ritter did not conspire with him to launder the stolen money.

Feb. 28, 2005: Carter pleads guilty to helping the pyramid scheme continue.

March 22, 2005: Osaki pleads guilty to operating the pyramid scheme. He is sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Sept. 9, 2005: The RCMP charge Ritter in connection with the theft and money laundering of $43 million US stolen by Gordon. Ritter is denied bail.

Jan. 23, 2006: The RCMP charge Ritter with breach of recognizance for obtaining a Belizean passport under an assumed name in violation of his previous bail conditions. Edmonton lawyer Casey O’Byrne is charged with aiding Ritter to breach the recognizance. O’Byrne denies the charge.

July 30, 2006: The Court of Queen’s Bench rules against Ritter on a crucial legal argument in his fight to avoid extradition to the United States.

Aug. 30, 2006: Ritter is sentenced to six months in prison for breach of recognizance.

Oct. 20, 2006: Ritter agrees to plead guilty to two new charges in Edmonton to avoid extradition to the U.S. He agrees to plead guilty to stealing $10.5 million US from Gordon and to helping perpetuate the American pyramid scheme.

Oct. 27, 2006: Ritter pleads guilty. The Crown and defence recommend a sentence of 10 years, to be served in Canada.

From the Western Standard…

The mandarin, the mogul and the missing millions

Kevin Steel – June 19, 2006=

He went from the legislature to a high life of private jets and caviar parties. They feted him as a brilliant lawyer and philanthropist. Only when the cops came looking for millions in laundered, stolen cash, did Edmonton’s elite discover who Michael Ritter really was.

“Everyone was hiding their true identities.” When Michael Ritter wrote those words to Larry Osaki in August 2002, he knew what he was talking about. Ritter was a man who knew all about how to hide a lot of things, which is why Osaki had tracked him down in the first place. Osaki needed someone who knew how to get a lot of money out of the U.S., and out of the reach of Securities and Exchange Commission authorities who were closing in on his illegal pyramid scheme. Ritter was going to help him relocate his Ponzi scheme somewhere where they couldn’t reach it. Osaki also wanted Ritter to ensure that all the foreign employees knew enough to keep quiet in case they were ever subpoenaed by police, to plead the fifth if they had to. “Will do, Larry,” assured Ritter in an e-mail, adding that it wasn’t likely that would happen anyway, since all the employees would be operating under fake names: “Everyone was hiding their true identities.”

Read the rest here…

As well, here is the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta document (United States of America v. Ritter, 2006 ABQB 398) documenting the Crown’s request to Honourable Madam Justice J.B. Veit that Ritter’s lawyer, Sid Terrabain, be removed as his counsel.

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…

I couldn’t find an interweb link for this story, but this story was in today’s Edmonton Journal:

Lawyer admits signing Ritter’s name change and passport papers
Edmontonian charged with laundering $43 million US

Charles Rusnell
The Edmonton Journal
Tuesday, June 20, 2006

EDMONTON – While Michael Ritter was under a court order not to apply for another passport, the high-profile Edmonton businessman changed his name in Belize and successfully applied for a Belizean passport under his new name, a court heard Monday.

The applications for Ritter’s name change and his new passport were signed by his friend, lawyer Casey O’Byrne.

In testimony, O’Byrne acknowledged signing Ritter’s name change application. But he said he had not read the document and didn’t know it was for the tiny Central American country of Belize, where Ritter is also a citizen, until he was contacted by the RCMP months later.

O’Byrne was subpoenaed to testify in Ritter’s trial for breach of recognizance, a charge that carries a penalty of up to two years in jail. The Edmonton lawyer also has been charged with aiding Ritter to breach that recognizance.

Under the law, none of O’Byrne’s testimony in the Ritter case can be used against him in future legal proceedings.

The charges against Ritter and O’Byrne stem from an order by a judge in October 2003. Ritter, Alberta’s former chief parliamentary counsel, had been indicted in the United States for his alleged role in a $250-million US Ponzi scheme, in which money from later investors is used to pay earlier ones.

To gain bail, Ritter signed a recognizance and agreed to surrender his passport, not try to get another one and not to leave Alberta. The wealthy businessman also put up $100,000 in cash, and $150,000 worth of security in his house.

O’Byrne shared the same law firm as Sid Tarrabain, Ritter’s lawyer in the extradition case. O’Byrne told the court he helped Tarrabain on the case, including signing, but not preparing, the documents related to Ritter’s recognizance.

O’Byrne said that in March 2005, Ritter told him the case against him in the U.S. was falling apart and he wanted to get his financial trust business going again.

Ritter, according to O’Byrne, said he needed to travel to Toronto and wanted O’Byrne’s legal assistance to change his name to get a new driver’s licence.

Ritter obtained a Belizean passport in the name of Adam d’Orleans. The Mounties learned of the passport from an employee of Ritter’s company, Newport Pacific, who found a scanned image of the passport on Ritter’s office computer.

Police and the Crown have contended Ritter wanted the new passport and new identity so he could flee serious charges in the U.S. and Canada. The Americans are seeking Ritter’s extradition for his alleged role in the Ponzi scheme. In Canada, he faces several charges related to his alleged role in laundering $43 million US, stolen from a brokerage firm by a Wall Street trader.

Ritter has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. He has been in custody since his arrest Sept. 9, 2005. The trial was adjourned and is expected to resume sometime in the next two weeks.

crusnell@thejournal.canwest.com

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…

I started the movie script for a Michael Ritter scandal made-for-TV-movie last night. I’m thinking of casting Christopher Walken in the lead role.

You can’t make this stuff up!

‘Everything I had known for five or six years wasn’t true’
Charles Rusnell, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Wednesday, April 26, 2006

EDMONTON – Prominent Edmonton businessman Michael Ritter told the young staff of his trust company he was the victim of a conspiracy by police and the government — and some of them believed it.

“I honestly believed the RCMP were out to get him because he had been very public with his criticism of the government in Alberta,” Patrick Mitchell testified in provincial court Tuesday.

But Mitchell, a former employee at Newport Pacific and a close friend of Ritter, said he began to have serious doubts after he attended Ritter’s bail hearing Sept. 9, 2005, and heard the case laid out by Crown prosecutor Greg Lepp.

Mitchell turned to the RCMP for answers.

“I just wanted to know what was true,” Mitchell told the court. “I felt like I didn’t know anything. Everything I had known for five or six years wasn’t true.”

Mitchell would eventually provide Sgt. Marjorie Maier of the RCMP commercial crime unit with a printout of a passport from Belize in the name of Adam d’Orleans, which contained Ritter’s photo. The printout became instrumental in helping the RCMP secure a search warrant to seize Ritter’s computer and charge the former chief parliamentary counsel of the Alberta legislature with breach of recognizance. A judge had earlier ordered Ritter to turn in all his passports and to not obtain any more.

Mitchell is one of the main witnesses in Ritter’s trial on that charge, which carries a penalty upon conviction of up to two years in jail.

It’s one of a string of sensational charges Ritter faces. In Canada, he faces several charges related to his alleged role in laundering $43 million US stolen from a brokerage firm by a Wall Street energy trader. The United States is seeking Ritter’s extradition for his role in a $250-million US Ponzi scheme, in which money from later investors is used to pay earlier ones. Read the rest here.

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…

SERIOUSLY FOLKS! THIS STORY JUST GETS JUICIER AND JUICIER!!!

Ex-Alta. official faked law degree
Legislature lawyer did not graduate, court told
Charles Rusnell, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Tuesday, April 25, 2006

EDMONTON – Michael Ritter, Alberta’s former chief parliamentary counsel, fabricated aspects of his academic credentials and never graduated from the law program at a London, England, university as he claimed.

The stunning revelation came during testimony Monday by an RCMP officer in Ritter’s trial for breach of recognizance.
Ritter is accused of failing to turn in all his passports, as ordered by the court, and of securing a Belizean passport using an alias. Police and prosecutors say Ritter, a prominent Edmonton businessman and arts philanthropist, wanted the passport and the new identity so he could flee charges in Canada and the U.S.

The charges include laundering $43 million US for a Wall Street energy trader and helping perpetuate a $250-million US Ponzi scheme, in which the money from later investors was used to pay earlier investors. Ritter has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is fighting extradition.

Dressed in a dark grey suit and white shirt with no tie, and shackled in leg irons, Ritter showed no emotion Monday as Sgt. Marjorie Maier of RCMP Commercial Crime testified that Scotland Yard, at the Mounties’ request, checked out Ritter’s academic credentials in England.

Maier said Scotland Yard reported that Ritter did not graduate from the London School of Economics, did not intern at the House of Lords, and was not accepted as a member of Gray’s Inn, one of four institutions in London whose members comprise the bar of England and Wales.

Despite this, Ritter served as Alberta’s chief parliamentary counsel from 1987 to 1992 and was by several accounts extremely capable, even drafting legislation that was adopted by other provinces. Read the rest here…

See the entire Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology.

Looks like our favorite former-Chief Parliamentary Counsel of the Alberta Legislature is still having fun…

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…

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology.

Yes, that’s right, just in time for Christmas, we bring you an update on our good friend, the former Chief Legal Consel to the Alberta Legislature, Mr. Michael Ritter and his adventures in international money laundering (for backstory see here, here, here, here, and here).

It just keeps getting juicier and juicier!

It seems that the U.S. Department of Justice has sentenced Mr. Larry Toshio Osaki to 20 years in prison for his involvment in the $250-Million Ponzi scheme…

Another Michael Ritter connection from Bloomberg.com…

Ex-Merrill Trader Gordon Gets 42 Months for Stealing $43 Mln

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Daniel Gordon, once the top energy trader at Merrill Lynch & Co., was sentenced to 42 months in prison for embezzling $43 million from the firm.

Gordon, 29, pleaded guilty in 2003 to federal charges that he stole the money by creating a phony energy trade with an offshore company that he’d set up. He also admitted that he helped falsify records at a Merrill energy-trading unit before its sale. Gordon later cooperated with a federal probe of Merrill, which ended without any additional charges.

…

Gordon said after he was told to reduce the risk of a transaction that Global Energy was involved in, he created a fictitious entity called Falcon Energy Holdings SA. He said he told co-workers that Falcon would enter into a deal to reduce Global Energy’s risk in return for $43 million. The money was wired to an overseas account Gordon set up for himself, he said.

Gordon pleaded guilty to single counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to falsify records of a public company.

…

Last month, in a related criminal case, authorities in Alberta, Canada, charged Michael Ritter with theft and money- laundering for helping Gordon steal money from Merrill. Gordon hid money in offshore accounts that prosecutors say were set up by Ritter’s Newport Pacific Financial Group.

…

UPDATE: MORE DANIEL GORDON/MICHAEL RITTER CONNECTION STORIES HERE, HERE, AND HERE.

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…

From Thursday….

Michael Ritter will stay in jail, Court of Queen’s Bench rules
Thursday, September 29, 2005

Michael Ritter will be staying in the Edmonton Remand Centre until his case goes to trial, a judge has ruled.

“The court denies Mr. Ritter’s request for review of bail,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Joanne Veit wrote in her decision issued Thursday.

Ritter, Alberta’s former chief parliamentary counsel, was charged earlier this month in the largest money-laundering case in Alberta’s history.

It’s alleged he conspired with Wall Street energy trader Dan Gordon to launder $43 million US stolen from the Merrill Lynch brokerage firm.

You can read the rest here….

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…

The Michael Ritter trial in Edmonton just keeps on getting more and more saucy.

For those of you interested, the “Reasons for Decision of the Honourable Assistant Chief Judge A. H. Lefever“, have been published on the Alberta Courts website.

It details the reasons why the Alberta Provincial Court judge denied Mr. Ritter bail (the section on him being flight risk to Belize was particularly interesting). It also has quite a good summary of the allegations made against Mr. Ritter by the American (ie. The $230 million ponzi scheme) and Canadian (ie. theft) authorities.

Even if half the allegations against Mr. Ritter are true, this scandal will sure make a great CBC mini-series one day (post-lockout, of course). It’s saucy, international, dangerous, and filled with Canadian content!

Not Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench.

For anyone interested (following up from an earlier post), Edmonton’s own Mr. Michael Ritter, the former Chief Parliamentary Counsel to the Alberta Legislature, has been making headlines across the world! Well… Albertans do have that “entrepreneurial spirit…”

Edmonton Sun: Ritter fighting to stay at home.
Bloomberg: Canadian Charged with $43 Million Embezzlement of Merrill Lynch.

We’ll have more coverage as it comes…

Here’s an open ended question for all you loyal daveberta readers: How much legislation was passed in Alberta while this upstanding gentleman was our Counsel?

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…

Money stolen from Merrill Lynch: $43 Million.

Money stolen or unlawfully possed and hidden in offshore bank accounts: $10.3 Million.

Money stolen through fraud in a US pyramid scheme: $230 Million.

Being denied bail AND facing extradition charges to the United States: Priceless.

Because, when Visa isn’t enough, there’s always theft, fraud, and money laundering.

Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…