BCSC Eron figure Chambers vindicated earlier by judge
2002-10-01 17:47 PT - Street Wire
by Brent Mudry
RCMP revelations of alleged links between Martin Chambers and the Hells Angels are just the latest setback for the controversial former Vancouver lawyer, Eron Mortgage figure and commercial real estate financier, whose business career has been dogged by intrigue for decades.
United States officials are fighting bail for Mr. Chambers, who has been held in jail since his arrest Aug. 14 in the Operation Bermuda Short sting, for allegedly agreeing to launder drug money for Colombian Cali cocaine cartel agents. A senior RCMP officer testified in open court Monday that police believe Mr. Chambers has direct connections to the Hells Angels, the organization of entrepreneurial motorcycle enthusiasts, and may even know a thing or two about some Angels hits in recent years.
RCMP Sergeant Michael Arnold testified that police in Vancouver "picked up a specific threat on a co-defendant coming from Chambers and with links to the Hells Angels." Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Hong told the court of a threat to Barbados-based accountant Michael Hepburn, a Bermuda Short co-accused, "which is believed to be a threat from Martin Chambers."
The same day this intriguing testimony unfolded in Miami's federal courthouse, a lawyer for Mr. Hepburn filed a motion to modify the bail bond conditions for his accountant client. There is no indication the timing of this filing was anything more than pure coincidence. All 60 Bermuda Short defendants, including Mr. Chambers and Mr. Hepburn, are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
THE ANGELS OF MAPLE RIDGE
The public RCMP revelations, meanwhile, come 5-1/2 years after a Vancouver lawyer made some candid comments about Mr. Chambers in a sworn affidavit. The lawyer, Henry Alexander (Sandy) McCandless, was mired in real estate litigation filed by Noramco Capital Corp., a Vancouver investment firm run by long-time Howe Street penny stock promoter Bruce McDonald, over a property deal in which Mr. Chambers was involved.
The 114-page affidavit, dated Jan. 28, 1997, offers an excruciating blow-by-blow account of the business deal, with a style, content and candid comment rarely demonstrated in affidavits filed by a lawyer. These inflammatory and seemingly extraneous, or irrelevant, comments by Mr. McCandless about Mr. Chambers were strongly rejected by the judge, Mr. Justice Raymond Paris of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, in a detailed chambers judgment two months later.
"McCandless' affidavits, particularly his first affidavit, call for further comment. I do not wish to be needlessly unkind or to embarrass anyone, but I must observe that it is a curious document for anybody, especially a solicitor, to put into evidence. It is verbose, prolix, and convoluted. It is replete with conjecture, innuendo, complete irrelevancies and hearsay two and three times removed. It is rhetorical in form, a cross between a lengthy argument and a mini novel. The language is inappropriately fanciful and colourful," stated Judge Paris in his scathing remarks.
The judge singled out, as an example, a few choice paragraphs of the 299-paragraph affidavit for particular condemnation, and quoted them verbatim.
"One does not lightly embarrass Martin Chambers as his usual response, which in November of 1992 he had directed to me personally, is to remind the 'other person' that while a practising lawyer he had represented the Maple Ridge Chapter of the 'Hell's Agents' on the instructions of its Treasurer and since that approximately January of 1982 he has yet represented it as its 'Business Agent' and that it would not be 'wise' to cross him, Martin Chambers," stated Mr. McCandless in his contentious affidavit.
"In November of 1992 and face-to-face, Martin Chambers had so threatened me, just before my White Jeep was torched and exploded, except the actual 'torchers,' blew up my neighbour's identical White Jeep," stated the lawyer.
After recounting these allegations of Mr. McCandless, Judge Paris strongly dismissed this evidence.
"In sum, the affidavit is so bizarre, but at the same time so lacking in substance as to the core issues (as were the Butler affidavits) that even if I were to consider it, I could not give its contents any weight. As an aside on the subject of practice (but in my view an important aside), to put such material before the Court and ask a judge to take the time to read and consider it is virtually an abuse of the process of the Court," stated Judge Paris. (The judge also rejected the affidavits of John Sharman Butler, a co-respondent in the real estate case.)
"The result of all the above is that there is nothing that can be given any weight or credence to in the materials submitted on behalf of the respondents as to the core issues relating to Larsen and Chambers. Conversely, the verisimilitude of the latters' accounts is strong."
(This real estate case featured Noramco associates Mr. Chambers and Vancouver mortgage financier Brian Larsen, the head of Barclay Capital. In an unrelated case later that year, Mr. Chambers emerged as a significant behind-the-scenes player at Eron Mortgage, after regulators shut down the $180-million fraud in October, 1997. Mr. Chambers was a key Eron borrower dating back to its inception. Eron was launched in 1993 by Brian Slobogian, who was urged by Mr. Larsen, a close associate of Mr. Chambers, to enter the mortgage business. Neither Mr. Larsen nor Mr. Chambers were ever accused of being party to the massive fraud.) |
