Shubenacadie band councillor facing fraud charges

A Shubenacadie band councillor and a former band employee have been charged with possession of the proceeds of crime.

Shauna MacDonald, with the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service, said the case involves an alleged fraud of more than $150,000.

"In this particular case, there will be an allegation that funds were stolen or defrauded," she said.  

MacDonald said the victim of that fraud is the Shubenacadie First Nation.  

Michael Patrick Sack, 31, owns the luxury house just off the Herring Cove Road in Halifax at the centre of six charges involving perjury and proceeds of crime.  

In November, Sack was re-elected to the Shubenacadie Band Council.  

Sack also faces a perjury charge in relation to the case for swearing an affidavit prosecutors say was untrue.

According to court documents, $120,000 of the home's purchase price was allegedly obtained through illegal means.  

RCMP have also seized two jeeps — a 2009 Jeep Liberty and a 2009 Jeep Patriot — valued at about $50,000. Until February of last year, the house was owned by 48-year-old Jeffrey Cecil Hayes, the owner of the two seized jeeps.  Hayes was also in possession of a 32-inch Samsung television that was seized.

Hayes had once acted as the financial director for the Shubenacadie band but he was fired when hundreds of thousands of band money couldn't be accounted for.

"Chief and council may have a discussion over the next few weeks on what's happening in court," said Nathan Sack, director of operations for the band.

That discussion could start as early as Tuesday at a band council meeting at Indian Brook.