The case of Bruce Elmore, 61 in Ontario has similar repercussions to the case against Laramee. It damaged the retirement abilities of of families, who worked hard for everything they had. The amounts were similar marginally as well. In this case, the defence battled for a 2 year conditional sentence, with house arrest for a portion of the sentence. How is this logical!? This man robbed lives and only receives a slap on the wrist!? Thankfully the judge was stern and gave him a 6 year sentence with a restitution order to pay back his former clients if he ever could do so. The only issue is that the victims not only lost their life savings, but they also had to relive the nightmare everyday for eight years until the judgement came. We should be able to clamp down on these criminals quickly. Just as we have auto insurance for drivers which goes up with the threat of a bad driver behind the wheel, perhaps we need similar insurance for investments, where if an "accident" were to occur, families that lose their life savings can perhaps generate some of the money that is owed to them, quickly.
Bruce Elmore
The problem with the current laws surrounding investment fraud is that the defendant has too much time and too many options to delay proceedings and dissolve the assets which should ultimately be held as restitution for the victims. As of right now, a bank has the authority to simply take your hard earned money from your account based on the "notion" that your company, that received funds from a company that is suspected of wrongdoing, is possibly connected to their illegal activities. No trial needed, and you must now fight to earn that money back. How is it that a person can fraud 100's of innocence out of their retirement income, and not be held accountable for 8 - 10 years?
Criminal Law Bulletin - The Issue of Delay
Even when forfeiture is enacted, it is rarely equal to the amount that was originally taken from the victims. Here is an example of a case in Texas, where a $25 million scheme across 300 victims, only turned up $4 million from physical assets to be distributed amongst them.
Texas Forfeiture
Here in Canada, you can rob someone of their ability to live the rest of their life, yet you only suffer 5 years imprisonment:
The below is referenced from Canadian Law Institute.
(2) No person shall establish, operate, advertise or promote a scheme of pyramid selling.
(3) ... liable ... to a fine in the discretion of the court or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to both; or (b) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding $200,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both
What does it take for our courts to set a precedent? Will we ever be able to feel that fraudsters are unwilling to take part in these crimes based on the fear of what will happen? We should set a precedent in a case based on the impact the fraud has had on families. The victim impact statement is a cornerstone to judge determination, and it should be used in these cases to really understand the impact of the criminals.
Why can't we have a judgement for these proceedings that give victims of fraud a quick turn around for their restitution, that automatically requires 100% of their money be refunded + any losses incurred due to the scheme and court proceedings?
If no money is able to be paid back, then the criminal should be thrown in jail for a maximum sentence. For every 10% they pay back, they get 10% off of their sentence.
If there are multiple victims, and the case is clearly fraud, all assets should be immediately frozen. Those funds will sit in an incubator account with the victims names on it until sufficient evidence proves exact dollar amounts to be released.
The criminal has the choice of pleading guilty within 1 year with a greatly reduced sentence, or they can go to trial with a conviction sending them away for 20 + years.
We need to start thinking about the victims!!
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