By Sean McKibbon -
A Brockville, Ontario, man accused of scamming U.S. and Canadian investors for hundreds of thousands of dollars in an offshore investment scheme has told a court he did nothing wrong and the RCMP just doesn't understand. "There has been a catastrophic failure to understand anything I did by the RCMP," said the self-represented Don Galna, 62, as he asked unsuccessfully to have the chief investigator in the case barred from the courtroom except when testifying.
Galna said other witnesses had been contaminated with suggestions by the officer that he had engaged in misconduct.
He also said he felt his trial would be dramatically prejudiced by the officer's presence in the courtroom.
Galna is charged with four counts of fraud over $5,000 and nine counts of uttering forged documents.
In an opening address to the court, Crown prosecutor Kim Crosbie said Galna set up a company called Donbanx Financial Corp., which solicited and received $1 million from investors who were promised returns of 18% per year.
Crosbie alleged investors were told the money would be transferred to an offshore entity called Off Shore Securities Corp. and that the money would be invested in mutual funds and later in investment trading programs.
"Instead of investing the money offshore, Mr. Galna used the money for other purposes," said Crosbie, adding that included paying interest to other investors, paying the operating expenses of Galna's companies and paying his personal expenses plus those of his vice-president, Elizabeth Wu.
Although investors were told their money was 100% guaranteed and were given a "Fully Secured Asset Backed Guarantee," issued by another firm created by Galna called Carmida Trust, Crosbie alleged "the trading programs that Mr. Galna offered do not exist."
Crosbie alleged Carmida purported to have billions in assets that either were not under Galna's full legal control or that in some cases Galna knew were worthless.
When investors tried to rely on the Carmida assets to get their money back, "all such attempts failed," Crosbie told the court.
Contact: Sean McKibbon
Source: Ottawa Sun via Cnews
