'The hole got too deep and it couldn't sustain itself'

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

by DAVE PINK

A witness for the prosecution testified today that Arlan Galbraith probably did not set out to swindle people.

Galbraith, the sole owner of the now bankrupt Pigeon King International, is on trial in Kitchener Superior Court, charged with defrauding many of the investors in his pigeon supply business of millions of dollars. In addition, he is facing four more charges under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act in connection with the alleged fraud.

“I think he actually wanted to help people,” Mark Wolfe, a former Pigeon King employee, said in response to questions from assistant Crown attorney Anita Etheridge. “In this case Arlan wanted to help, but it was a bad business idea. I don’t think he wanted to scam people.”

Wolfe worked for Galbraith for not quite a year, beginning in the late winter of 2006. He admitted that in 2008, in a statement to police, that he had referred to the business as a “Ponzi scheme.” But Wolfe said that he’s now changed his mind.

“It had a lot of Ponzi-like elements to it,” he said. But, “there’s a grey area here.

“The hole got too deep and it couldn’t sustain itself.”

Wolfe said that his job duties gradually changed during his time at Pigeon King, so he quit. But he said he bears no ill will to Galbraith.

In earlier testimony, court was told that investors, mostly farmers and many of them Pennsylvania Amish, would buy breeding pairs of pigeons from Galbraith with a promise that he would buy back the offspring and sell these “high-end” birds to racing enthusiasts. But 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.

The initial investors profited, but those who bought pigeons later on stood to lose large sums of money.

Pigeon King declared bankruptcy in mid 2008.

Galbraith has chosen not to hire a lawyer and is defending himself.

The trial, before Justice G.E. Taylor, will resume Tuesday. It’s expected to continue for another five to seven weeks. BF