might as well add in some more good dirt
B.C. Securities Commission - Street Wire
BCSC's Angels concerns vindicated in Dekanich case
B.C. Securities Commission *BCSC
Shares issued 0 Jan 1 1900 close $.000
Monday Oct 15 2001 Street Wire
by Brent Mudry
Alleged hitman Mickie Phillip Smith confessed to four other murders, dating back three decades, soon after he was arrested and charged in February for the murder of small-time Howe Street stock promoter Rossano Valentino "Wally" Dekanich five weeks earlier, according to Crown prosecutor Hank Reiner.
Mr. Smith remains presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt, and the Crown comments do not constitute evidence. The brief hearing was not subject to a publication ban, and Mr. Smith's counsel, a defence lawyer quite experienced in murder cases, did not seek such a ban.
If any confessions were ever made, they could only be entered as evidence in an eventual trial if they are ruled admissible in a voir dire. Mr. Smith's presumed innocence remains paramount.
Prosecutor Mr. Reiner also told British Columbia Provincial Court Judge B.E. Bastin on Monday that Mr. Smith was already the target of an intensive undercover operation when he allegedly shot Mr. Dekanich dead in the head outside the Net 1 U.E.P.S. Technologies promoter's North Vancouver townhouse on Jan. 9.
The startling revelations came amid a brief court appearance for Mr. Smith, 55, formerly of West Vancouver, who was charged last week with the four new counts of first degree murder.
British Columbia Securities Commission enforcement director Sacha Angus declined to comment directly on the Dekanich hit, but expressed concern about rumoured Hells Angels involvement in the local stock market. "We are aware of allegations that bikers are moving into capital markets, not only in B.C. but across Canada and in the U.S., and of course we are concerned about it," Mr. Angus told Stockwatch last week.
Mr. Smith was first charged on Feb. 13, with the Jan. 9 slaying of Mr. Dekanich, 41. It is not yet known whether the Dekanich murder was a Hells Angels hit.
Meanwhile, a high-rank Hells Angels member who was keen on investing at least $2-million in the Net 1 deal in late 1993 and 1994 is currently a fugitive from a Canadian arrest warrant for alleged drug transactions dating back to this same period.
The Net 1 case appears to be the first publicly documented case of recent Hells Angels involvement in Vancouver penny stock circles.
Michael David "Spanky" Rogerson, who was the president of the White Rock chapter of the Hells Angels, is the subject of an arrest warrant issued Sept. 2, 1997, stemming from alleged conspiracy to commit an indictable offence in about January, 1993. The current whereabouts of Mr. Rogerson, named as a resident of Langley, B.C., in 1997, is not known.
In the arrest warrant, Mr. Rogerson, 51, was charged with two counts related to drug importation and trafficking.
In Count 1, Mr. Rogerson is charged with conspiring with Claude Duboc and Julie Roberts, between January, 1993, and November, 1994, in Vancouver and elsewhere in B.C., to import cannabis resin, commonly known as hashish, into Canada. In Count 2, Mr. Rogerson is charged with conspiring with Mr. Duboc and Ms. Roberts, to traffic in hashish. All three are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Although police decline to comment on any Hells Angels links to Mr. Smith's alleged hits, Stockwatch reported in February, the day Mr. Smith's Dekanich charge was announced, that Mr. Smith, a former insurance agent, is a known associate of the organization of entrepreneurial motorcycle enthusiasts.
Stockwatch revealed on Friday that Mr. Rogerson, highly respected in Hells Angels circles, was negotiating a sizeable investment in Net 1 in late 1993 and early 1994.
In an intriguing coincidence, Mr. Dekanich's last major deal before his murder was the promotion of Net 1, a company listed on the OTC Bulletin Board. While Mr. Dekanich had been retained by the company to do investor relations work, it is not yet known whether his death was directly related to his Net 1 promotion or the Hells Angels.
According to a Net 1 insider, Mr. Rogerson was extremely interested in Net 1's proprietary Universal Electronic Payment System, a money-moving platform using smart card technology.
While there is no suggestion that Net 1 is anything but an upstanding company, electronic funds transfer systems are quite attractive to anyone, even an entrepreneurial motorcycle enthusiast, who is keen to shuffle money around without waiting in line at the bank with the general public and having anyone looking over their shoulder.
"He (Rogerson) stated to me at the French Quarter Pub in Maillardville, British Columbia, on or about April, 1994, during a lunch meeting, that an off-line, smart card based, electronic cash payment system made transferring cash from country to country seamless and untraceable by authorities," stated Langley lawyer James N. Rodgers.
Langley, a semi-agricultural suburb of Vancouver, meanwhile, is a common thread of locale in the developing Dekanich story. Mr. Rodgers and Mr. Rogerson were both based in Langley, along with a respected insurance agency, Schmunk Gatt Smith & Associates, where Mr. Smith served a short stint as a business associate until early 1987.
In addition, the RCMP confirmed in February that Mr. Smith's "without-incident" arrest was made in Langley. Mr. Smith is believed to have been arrested at the Shark Club Bar & Grill.
The revelation of the undercover operations was made in court on Monday.
"He was the target of an undercover operation earlier last year and into this year, and in the course of the undercover operations committed the Dekanich murder on Jan. 9," prosecutor Mr. Reiner told Judge Bastin.
"He was charged on Feb. 13 at the conclusion of the undercover operation ... at the conclusion of the undercover operation he confessed to four other murders," Mr. Reiner told the court. The prosecutor confirmed the four new charges, laid last Tuesday, resulted from further police investigation of the cases.
Although Mr. Smith had been set for a one-month preliminary inquiry on the Dekanich murder, set to start on Nov. 28, Mr. Reiner told Judge Bastin that he seeks an adjournment, given the latest developments, and the Attorney General of B.C. is expected to proceed by direct indictment, lumping all five murder charges together.
Defence counsel Brian Coen of Vancouver, who has represented Mr. Smith since at least the Dekanich charge, objected vigorously. "I've received no new information on these four new murders. I've received no disclosure. There is absolutely no reason for these charges to be laid at this date except to deny Mr. Smith his right to a preliminary inquiry," Mr. Coen told the court.
After some haggling over dates and details, Judge Bastin set a next appearance for Mr. Smith for Wednesday. The judge initially suggested a Thursday date would give Mr. Coen more of a chance to get up to speed, but the busy defence lawyer is set to start a preliminary hearing that day for another client, also presumed innocent, in Nanaimo, a second-degree murder case.
Outside the courthouse, Mr. Coen told Stockwatch and a BC-CTV reporter that it is "inexcusable" for the Crown to have rolled the four new murder charges together with the Dekanich case and to hurriedly push ahead for a direct indictment. The defence lawyer, however, conceded that the protection of witnesses was one factor which could favour speeding the case up rather than dragging it out for years.
Mr. Coen stressed that Mr. Reiner's comments inside the courtroom were only the Crown's statements. "I"m not even confirming there is a confession," said the defence lawyer, before Stockwatch clarified that Mr. Smith allegedly made four murder confessions.
Mr. Coen expects it is quite unlikely the five murders will ever be tried in a single case, as the deaths did not arise from a single transaction or incident, or involve significant similar-fact evidence.
"My hands are tied" until the case moves from provincial court to supreme court, the defence lawyer told the reporters. Once the case is transferred, Mr. Coen expects to make applications to either quash or sever the charges.
"If the five murder charges are tried together without a preliminary hearing, his rights to a fair trial may be seriously jeopardized," said the defence lawyer.
(c) Copyright 2001 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
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