Con man gets 3 years in jail for perjury
Covered up criminal past to start publicly traded company
A Quebec con man has been sentenced to three years in prison for two counts of perjury for lying about his previous identity and criminal past on stock exchange forms.
Robert Vanier submitted sworn documents indicating he had only been known by that name and that he had no criminal convictions, despite the fact he was born Carl Gagnon and committed more than 60 crimes under that name. Gagnon received a new identity while in witness protection after testifying against the Hells Angels.
As Vanier, he relocated to London, Ont., and launched a petroleum company called Onco.
In order to sell its shares on the public market, Vanier covered up his past on the sworn documents filed with securities regulators.
After Onco began trading in November 2007, the stock plunged and 1,400 investors in Quebec and London, Ont., lost in excess of $30 million, according to the RCMP at the time of his arrest in 2013.
In her ruling, written in French, Superior Court Justice Julie Thorburn agreed with a pre-sentence report that Vanier’s history reveals him to be a serial fraudster, but noted that he hasn’t committed any other crimes while waiting for his trial.
Thorburn ordered Vanier into custody immediately. He is set to return to court in September to face a charge of filing a false prospectus with the Ontario Securities Commission.