One by one, the pins have been knocked out from under West Vancouver businessman Fred Sharp. He was ordered to pay the equivalent of more than $70 million to the U.S. government and $2 million to Quebec’s securities regulator for his role in schemes to manipulate share prices. He’s banned from stock markets in Canada. His bank and brokerage accounts were frozen and ordered to be seized. Known as the Canadian mastermind in the Panama Papers, Sharp has lost case after case in court.

But Sharp still has his freedom: Despite a push within the Canada Revenue Agency years ago to criminally investigate him, he’s never been charged in Canada. And while the U.S. Justice Department indicted him two years ago for securities fraud and conspiracy, there is no public evidence of an effort to extradite him.

Former financial crime investigators who spoke to CBC News say it’s not unusual for Canadian authorities to prefer that people accused of committing cross-border white-collar offences out of Canada be charged and tried in the U.S., because of the uphill battle to prosecute such cases in Canada.

But that requires the defendants be arrested and brought to a Canadian court for an extradition hearing, and — five years after Sharp was first charged in the U.S. — that has not happened. It’s not clear why.

    • SeeMarkFly@lemmy.mlEnglish
      12·
      2 days ago

      I always wonder how many decimal places I have to have in my bank account to do “whatever I want” in life.

      I tried working hard but THAT’s a lie. THAT just makes someone (people with enough decimal places) else money. They (people with enough decimal places) were waiting for me.

          • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
            4·
            2 days ago

            I live very frugally. I am very careful with energy use, keeping my house cold in winter and try to use electricity when rates are the lowest. I shop almost exclusively stuff on sale at the grocer. I buy most of my stuff used whenever reasonable.

            I have enough money to not live like that, but it would reduce the amount of money i can contribute now to things like my TFSA. The faster i get those gains and increase my investable captial, the faster that income becomes meaningful.