Accused in love scheme in custody
Disabled Ottawa man lost $850,000
OTTAWA • A self-confessed criminal who fled to Jamaica a decade ago — allegedly with the proceeds of a massive fraud that victimized a disabled Ottawa man — is now behind bars.
Nolan Johnson was arrested at Toronto’s international airport earlier this month and, on Tuesday, was remanded in custody here on charges of fraud, conspiracy and possession of proceeds obtained by crime.
In a 2011 telephone interview from Jamaica, Johnson admitted he was a drug dealer and money launderer, but he denied any part in the elaborate, emotionally manipulative con that tore apart Doug Macklem’s life in 2006. He said his ex-wife, Darquise, was to blame.
“I didn’t mastermind nothing,” Johnson told Postmedia.
Macklem, 51, an Ottawa computer systems analyst who uses a wheelchair because of his cerebral palsy, was stunned by news of Johnson’s arrest.
“Wow, I can’t believe it,” Macklem said. “I guess they always come back to the scene of the crime.”
Johnson’s lawyer, Howard Krongold, said his client, who has family in Canada, maintains his innocence and returned to deal with the criminal charges “so he can get on with his life.”
At her trial in January 2011, Johnson’s ex-wife, Darquise, testified that he was the puppet master behind the romance-based scheme that defrauded Macklem of $850,000. She told court that she was beaten, kicked, choked or threatened whenever she raised objections to her husband’s plan.
Darquise Johnson, a former call girl and dominatrix, was sentenced to four years in prison for her role in the crime. She was paroled after 16 months.
Throughout 2006, Macklem invested heavily in two fictitious Caribbean tourist villas based on his belief he was building a future with Johnson, a call girl he knew as Nicole L’Ecuyer. He fell in love during a two-year relationship that began in August 2004, when he hired her from an online escort agency.
Their relationship became more involved, and Macklem believed they were going to live and raise a family together in the Dominican Republic.
In December 2006, after draining Macklem of his inheritance and retirement savings, Nicole faked her own death. Macklem received an email Christmas Day, informing him she had died in a car accident — only days before he was to fly to the Dominican to see their vacation properties.
Macklem hired two private investigators, who soon uncovered the truth: Darquise Johnson was alive and well and living with her husband, Nolan, in Jamaica.
“This realization tore my heart out and left me as a shadow of my former self,” Macklem would later write in his victim impact statement.
Macklem went to police and the Johnsons were charged with a series of fraud-related crimes, but the Crown said it would not seek their extradition.
Darquise Johnson unexpectedly returned to Canada the following year, and was promptly arrested at the airport.
She would later tell court that her husband blew $800,000 of Macklem’s money on cars, travel and gambling, and that she came back to Ottawa with only a bag of clothes to her name.
Postmedia interviewed Nolan Johnson at the conclusion of his ex-wife’s fraud trial. Johnson said he moved to Jamaica, not to hide from the law, but to provide his young children with a more stable life.
Johnson said he was too busy pushing cocaine in Ottawa to involve himself in a scheme to defraud Macklem.
Evidence at his ex-wife’s trial showed that the couple shared a bank account that was inflated with money bilked from Macklem.
But Johnson said had he known the money was fraudulently obtained, he would have “cleaned” it in the same way he laundered drug proceeds — buying and selling cars.
Johnson insisted he didn’t physically abuse his ex-wife, or take part in the Macklem fraud or have his money.
“If I did it, I would have the money,” he said. “I don’t drink and I don’t gamble: money is not something that is going to go through my hands like that.”
For his part, Macklem said he’s anxious for the case to come to an end. He has all but given up hope of recovering any of his money.
“To tell you the truth, I just want this to finish,” he said. “I don’t know his purpose in coming back.”
I GUESS THEY ALWAYS COME BACK TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME.