Jacobson, who was close to federal cabinet ministers, was arrested by Toronto police last Thursday for extradition to the United States after he failed to show up for sentencing this summer for a 2008 money laundering conviction.
He was in jail from Thursday until Wednesday, when a lawyer representing the federal Justice Department appeared in Ontario Superior Court to announce he had reached an agreement with Jacobson’s lawyer. Jacobson paid $600,000 in bail and his lawyer handed over his Israeli and his Canadian passports.
The opposition has asked why it took so long for the government to bring Jacobson to justice, and questioned whether it has anything to do with his friendship with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.
A Justice Department spokesman said Tuesday that the government acted as soon as the Americans requested a warrant for his arrest, and Jacobson’s lawyer said Wednesday that during the three months he was a fugitive, Jacobson was working with American authorities to resolve their legal differences.
Legal documents suggest that information that Jacobson planned to make a move prompted police to make their move last week and pick him up.
In court documents made public Wednesday, Detective Constable Daniel Gallo of the Toronto Police Service writes that “according to the provisional arrest request, a confidential source advised Canadian law enforcement that on October …” The rest of the sentence has been blacked out.
At the request of the U.S. Marshal service, Toronto Detective Andrew Lawson staked out Jacobson’s downtown Toronto condo building on Oct. 24 , photographed Jacobson and sent the photo to the Americans, who confirmed it was him. Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson signed a provisional arrest warrant the same day, a judge authorized it and police picked him up last Thursday.
In granting the warrant, Justice Ian Nordheimer noted on the file that he was satisfied that there were grounds to grant the warrant “given Mr. Jacobson’s failure to appear at sentencing, his apparent flight to Canada and his connection to Israel suggests that he is a flight risk.”
Nordheimer noted, though, that the urgency asserted by a confidential informant” was “too vague and unspecific to be given much credence.”
Justice Department lawyer Moiz Rahman told the judge that he had arranged with Jacobson’s lawyer, Michael Gordner, to release the businessman.
Gordner said in an interview after the hearing that the American authorities hadn’t previously sought Jacobson’s arrest because he had been working with them.
“We were living openly in Canada and working with the U.S. authorities and had entered into negotiations about our return,” Gordner said. “And apparently the Canadian government received some information about Mr. Jacobson. They passed it on to the U.S. government. The U.S. government took steps based on that information.
We maintain that any information about Mr. Jacobson not attending in court would be erroneous and we entered into discussions, and provided a great deal of information to the Canadian government about Mr. Jacobson and as a result of that, obtained a release.”
Gordner said it “may very well be the case” that Jacobson will surrender to U.S. authorities and not fight extradition, but that the final decision hasn’t been made.
In the plea, Jacobson admits to knowingly laundering money obtained from the illegal sale of controlled substances without prescriptions through the Internet pharmacy Affpower. Jacobson’s Israeli-based credit-card clearing company — RX Payments Inc. — processed more than 300,000 payments worth $146 million, taking 5.65 per cent of the purchase price plus 50 cents in processing fees per order, routing the money through New York banks to accounts in Nicosia, Cyprus, and then to the participants in the scheme.
In 2005 and 2006, RX received at least $1.3 million in payments for processing the fees, plus $3.2 million that it failed to transfer to Affpower accounts in July 2006 in violation of its contract with the firm.
After he signed the sealed plea deal in 2008, Jacobson sponsored events, moved in social circles with Baird and Kenney, and other senior Conservatives. He was photographed with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an event in March. He introduced Kenney at one event on Parliament Hill and was scheduled to do so again in November.
Spokespeople for Kenney, Baird and Harper say they were not aware of his legal troubles.
In the House of Commons on Wednesday, Liberal MP Judy Foote asked whether ministers had explained their dealings with him.
“We know the Conservatives refuse to return his donations, but will each cabinet minister table every contact they had with them and the nature of these communications?” she asked.
“Department of Justice officials received a request from the United States to arrest Mr. Jacobson on Oct. 24,” she said. “A warrant was obtained just one day later on Oct. 25. Police carried out the arrest later that same day. In other words, the government has been completely responsive to this situation. This is a matter related to a private citizen.
It is not related to the government. As the member knows, we do not interfere with police operations. As this case is now before the courts, we should let that process continue. It would be completely inappropriate to discuss it here.”
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Stephen Maher
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