Crown agrees to bail for fugitive businessman with Conservative ties

OTTAWA — A lawyer for the federal Justice Department agreed to let fugitive businessman Nathan Jacobson out on bail on Wednesday in spite of a warning from a confidential informant that earlier led police to arrest him.

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 U.S. authorities to resolve their legal differences.

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 con- firmed 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.”

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 U.S. authorities hadn’t previously sought Jacobson’s arrest because he had been working with them.

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.

The plea agreement that Jacobson signed with the U.S. government in May 2008 was released publicly for the first time on Wednesday.

In the plea, Jacobson admits to knowingly laundering money obtained from the illegal sale of controlled substances without prescriptions through the Internet pharmacy Aff-power.

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.

Jacobson next appears in court on Nov. 26.