A jury trial is underway in Red Deer for a Sylvan Lake man accused of defrauding investors in a fracking technology of $2.6 million.
Dane Michael Skinner, 59, is facing charges of fraud over $5,000 and laundering the proceeds of crime in connection with an alleged scheme to sell a product that made fracking operations at oil wells cheaper and more environmentally friendly. He was arrested and charged in July 2018.
Blackfalds RCMP allege at least 16 people sank money into a scheme between December 2007 and February 2013 and backers lost more than $2.6 million.
RCMP also alleged investors were wrongly led to believe the technology was about to be sold to another company, leading to a financial windfall. Police said the alleged scam was linked to two numbered companies and N.E.XT. Legacy Technologies Ltd.
On Monday, Eric Sirrs, a vice-president with insolvency and restructuring firm MNP Ltd., testified that his company had been appointed to look into Skinner’s company’s financial affairs.
Sirrs said MNP repeatedly reported back to the courts that Skinner was not cooperating in providing the required financial documents.
A number of paper and electronic records were found at one point at a Lacombe-area acreage but they were sparse and incomplete, he testified before Red Deer Court of King’s Bench Justice Gillian Marriott.
Sirrs was asked if he was aware of a proposed sale of Skinner’s technology to another company. He testified MNP was aware that shareholders had been told there was an opportunity for a sale but was not able to confirm to its satisfaction that it was in the works, such as through a letter of interest or similar document. Any sale would have required the approval of MNP and the courts, he added.
The trial before a 12-man, two-woman jury, including two alternates began two weeks ago and is scheduled to run until March 15.
This is the third time a trial has been scheduled for Skinner. A trial was initially to take place in September 2021. That was rescheduled to begin on Jan. 30, 2023 and was to run until Feb 8 before it was also rescheduled.