Former employee testifies against Pigeon King
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
by DAVE PINK
A former sales agent with Pigeon King International said in Superior Court Tuesday that he felt threatened by the business’s owner, Arlan Galbraith, after confronting him with some “red flags” about the company’s business plan.
Galbraith is on trial in Kitchener, charged with defrauding investors in the pigeon supply business of more than $1 million. In addition, he is facing four more charges under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act in connection with the alleged fraud.
“There was a lot of questions,” William Top testified. “There were always a couple of red flags.”
Top said he was hired by Galbraith in August 2005 to develop a market for the pigeons in the United States. Top said that, typically, people would respond to magazine ads placed by Galbraith promising big profits to farmers wanting to raise “high end sporting pigeons.” He said Galbraith would pass those names on to him and he would visit those farms, intending to sell a pair of breeding pigeons.
And business was good. Many farmers, a big majority of them Amish in Pennsylvania, agreed to buy breeding pigeons at $80 a pair with the promise of receiving $15 for each of the offspring from Pigeon King.
Top testified that as more and more people agreed to be “growers” for Pigeon King they were sold the pigeons that were purchased from those very first investors. Top said that he saw no evidence that these “high-end pigeons” were being purchased by the enthusiasts and hobbyists they were intended for.
Top told the court that while he was in the United States he happened upon a convention of pigeon fanciers – the kind of people Galbraith had said he wanted to sell to. “Nobody had heard of Arlan or Pigeon King,” Top said. “That was another red flag.
“Let’s say you were in the veal business. You would know everybody else that was in the veal business,” Top said.
Top testified that he met with Galbraith at the Pigeon King office in Waterloo in February 2006, and that Galbraith said he planned to expand into China and South America. “He told me that if I stuck with him I could make a lot of money ... I thought, ‘You’re going to run out of customers.’ Once the world gets filled with pigeons where’s the market going to be.
“Then Arlan put his head down and was silent for a few minutes. When he raised his head there was a different look on his face. It was a different Arlan.
“That’s when he said that if I said anything negative about him that he’d take me to court,” said Top. And Galbraith made implied threats against his family, said Top.
“I took those threats from Arlan very seriously,” Top testified. “Arlan made it clear to me that he would discredit me and my family.”
Still, Top said he complained about Galbraith’s business practices to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and to local police departments.
Top’s testimony will continue in court Wednesday.
In her opening remarks to the jury, Crown attorney Lynn Robinson said Galbraith grew his business with a pattern of “deceit, falsehood and with fraudulent means” and that he knew his business model was unsustainable and dishonest.
The prosecution showed the jury a six-minute, 32-second video montage featuring Galbraith, who is telling potential investors that the market for pigeons is strong, even when he knew otherwise, said Robinson.
“He kept his business plan secret from everyone,” she said. “This wasn’t simply mismanagement. He was not just messing up. He was not just making a mistake. . . . Mr. Galbraith kept taking money from people. He keeps up the same scheme.”
Robinson said Galbraith took in $20 million knowing that those investors would never see a return on their money.
The trial, before Justice G.E. Taylor, is expected to continue for six to eight weeks. BF