Cinar co-founder Ronald Weinberg will not testify at sentencing hearing
Sentencing arguments underway for Weinberg, associates John Xanthoudakis, Lino Matteo after fraud conviction
Ronald Weinberg, the co-founder of Cinar, will not speak at his own sentencing hearing for his role in the $120-million fraud at the defunct children's television production company.
His lawyer, Annie Émond, announced the decision in court Tuesday morning while requesting a delay, but she did not provide a reason.
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Weinberg was convicted last week in the case that dates back more than 15 years, along with financiers John Xanthoudakis, the former head of Norshield Financial Group, and Lino Matteo, who ran the Montreal-based investment firm, Mount Real.
Weinberg was found guilty of nine of 16 charges he faced for his role in an elaborate fraud that saw the transfer of Cinar funds to Bahamas.
Catharine MacDonald, who said she and her husband lost close to $500,000 in the Norshield and Mount Real financial scandals, which are now the subject of a class action suit involving Weinberg's co-defendants, hoped to hear Weinberg testify.
"I would want to hear that he was sorry for anybody that was involved and lost money, because he's supposed to be someone who is very altruistic, and he only thinks of others," MacDonald said.
"So he might have said something like that, but I'm sure he would only continue to declare his innocence in all of this."
The verdicts bring to a conclusion a criminal trial that began more than two years ago, in May 2014, making it the longest jury trial in Canadian history.
No clothes, toothbrush
Émond told Quebec Superior Court Justice Pierre Labrie that the three convicted men have not had access to their clothes or even their own toothbrushes since they were taken into custody last Thursday, due to a technical error while registering at the detention centre.
She requested time to meet with Weinberg and described detention conditions as "very difficult."
"Can you order then my client could receive — at least for his dignity — his clothes?" Émond asked Labrie.
Corrections
- An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Catharine MacDonald was defrauded of close to $500,000 in the Cinar case. In fact, she and her husband lost their money in the Norshield and Mount Real financial scandals, now the subject of a class action suit. Those cases involve Ronald Weinberg's co-defendants, John Xanthoudakis and Lino Matteo, who are also awaiting sentencing in the Cinar affair.Jun 07, 2016 2:12 PM ET