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Friday, October 20, 2006

jim dinning is not a lawyer.

I'm really interested in going to a Ted Morton Alberta PC leadership event before the masses of Tories place their final judgment on the Group of Six + Jim Dinning.

Does anyone know of an Edmonton event Morton will be at in the near future? I'm busy this Sunday, so it will preferably have to be during the week.

Also, kudos to Ken for this humdinger:

What if the latest Dinning Dunning Myth Buster was:
"Jim Dinning is not a lawyer - neither is Michael Ritter."
Speaking of our friend Mr. Ritter... it's been quite quiet on that front lately...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Edmonton Sun _Saturday October 21,2006

By TONY BLAIS, COURT BUREAU


Michael Ritter - a high-profile Edmonton businessman and Alberta's former chief parliamentary counsel - is slated to be sentenced next week, court heard yesterday.

However, it won't be known until Friday what exactly the 49-year-old financier is going to plead guilty to.

Defence lawyer Robbie Davidson appeared in provincial court on behalf of Ritter, who is in custody at the Fort Saskatchewan correctional facility, and the matter was set over for sentencing to Friday, Oct. 27.

According to the docket, Ritter was facing charges laid in 2005 of laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of stolen property, fraud over $5,000 and theft over $5,000.

As well, the court record indicated he was making his first appearance on new charges of fraud over $5,000 and theft over $5,000, which are believed to be amended counts stemming from the original charges in 2005.



It is alleged Ritter stole or unlawfully possessed $43 million US paid by Merrill Lynch Capital Services Inc. to a savings account held by Falcon Energy Holdings, a company incorporated in the Caribbean country of Anguilla.

It is also alleged Ritter stole or unlawfully possessed $10.5 million US which remains in a savings account controlled by Newport Pacific Financial Group, an offshore company run by Ritter.

The crimes are alleged to have occurred between August 2000 and August 2003.

Ritter is also facing extradition proceedings to the United States concerning an alleged Ponzi scheme, where more than $250 million was collected from nearly 7,000 victims between 1992 and 2002.

According to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, Ponzi schemes are pyramid investment scams in which money from later investors is used to pay earlier ones.