Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Pigeon King case inching forward



Kitchener – The court action against Pigeon King principal Arlan Galbraith inched ahead in provincial court here with an adjournment to Feb. 27 to deal with procedural matters.

It’s likely that lawyers for the prosecution and defence will lay out a schedule for moving the case forward.
Galbraith is facing one charge of fraud and a number of charges under the Bankruptcy Act, all relating to the collapse of his pigeon-breeding business in Waterloo.

He persuaded thousands of people to invest in buying breeding pairs of pigeons with a promise that Galbraith and, later, his Pigeon King International inc., would buy back offspring at profitable prices.

Government officials in Iowa called it a Ponzi scheme, meaning that it could only work as long as new investors were found to funnel money to previous investors. Once the market for breeding pairs of pigeons would be exhausted, the business would collapse.

Galbraith’s lawyer has obtained a court order sealing all of the information that has so far been filed in court, including the information the police have gathered to support the charges that have been laid.