2 charged with stealing $24M from Atlas Copco on trial in Sudbury
Former colleagues involved in alleged scheme expected to testify against Dirk Plate and Paul Caron
Two men accused of perpetrating one of the largest frauds in northern Ontario history are on trial now in Sudbury.
Paul Caron, 67, and Dirk Plate, 68, are both charged with fraud over $5,000.
In this case, it is alleged to be well over $5,000.
Assistant crown attorney Philip Zylberberg outlined his case in an opening statement Wednesday.
He detailed how the scheme that bilked multi-national corporate giant Atlas Copco out of $24 million began when Plate was unhappy with his pension plan. Plate was the general manager at the Sudbury office between 2002 and 2005, but had been with Atlas Copco for decades.
The crown alleges that Plate wanted his pension to be more in line with his Canadian counterparts, rather than tied to the retirement plan for Atlas Copco employees in his native Netherlands, where he began his career.
It's alleged that, when Plate's bosses refused to improve his pension, Plate and Montreal insurance broker Paul Caron came up with a plan to get the money another way.
3 employees, insurance broker in on alleged fraud scheme
Caron, who acted as a middle man between the company and its benefits provider, is accused of billing Atlas Copco for $32 million in benefits, when in truth only $7 million was claimed.
Zylberberg said that Caron's tax filings show $13 million in income, claiming "every business expense, legitimate and illegitimate." While is was not the full amount stolen from Atlas Copco, it constitutes "a multi-million dollar fraud on his own version of events."
Three Atlas Copco employees are accused of being in on the scheme and putting millions worth of kickbacks into their own bank accounts.
Plate is one of them and the crown alleges he received $1.44 million in retirement investments for his role in the scheme.
He is likely to hear the other two testify against him during this trial.
David Hillier is the former finance manager at the Sudbury office of Atlas Copco and the crown alleges he came up with ways to hide the money in different bank accounts so that company officials wouldn't notice.
He has not been charged because he has repaid the $400,000 he stole and agreed to testify.
Atlas Copco's former Montreal-based human resources manager Leo Caron was charged along with Paul Caron and Plate in 2012, but in 2013 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.
'Detailed, yet simple'
No facts have been proven in court yet and the defence has yet to present their cases. Paul Caron is representing himself, while Toronto lawyer Ralph Steinberg is defending Plate.
The trial is expected to last 10 weeks, hear from a dozen witnesses and delve deeply into complex financial documents, boxes and binders of which are piled high in the courtroom.
"We have a lot of paper," Justice John Poupore told the jury.
Zylberberg urged them to be patient and try to stay focused during the long days of intricate evidence ahead.
"Never lose sight of the fact that all of this is simple. Detailed, yet simple," the crown prosecutor told the court.
"In the end, the only thing that will matter is if there was a scheme and whether they were part of it."