Ontario private eyes nabbed in Turks

Published on Wednesday September 05, 2012
Kevin Donovan
Staff Reporter

DAVID COOPER/TORONTO STAR Elaine White once worked for forensic accountants in Toronto. She is in a Turks and Caicos jail awaiting a hearing Friday.
Two Canadian private eyes accused of defrauding divorce and business clients have been nabbed by police in the Caribbean where they have been island hopping for three years.

Cullen Johnson is a former aide to a Toronto police chief. Elaine White, his wife and partner in alleged crime, once worked for forensic accountants in Toronto. They are in a Turks and Caicos jail awaiting a hearing Friday.

A Toronto Star investigation in 2009 exposed an unusual scheme: Both were accused by former clients (and later the police) of forging and selling bank records that made clients believe an ex-spouse, friend or employee had millions of dollars stashed offshore. One case involved a group of lottery winning friends led to believe one of their group swindled the others.

Shortly after the pair pleaded not guilty to fraud charges in Newmarket court in late December 2009, they flew south and set up shop in the Bahamas, calling their new private-eye company Internal Affairs Global, boasting a crack investigation squad that could pierce any banking veil.

On Wednesday, immigration agents in the Turks and Caicos arrested Johnson, 64, and White, 69. Police in Ontario say the pair had overstayed their Turks’ visa. A routine check turned up warrants for their arrest filed internationally by the Ontario Provincial Police, stories in the Toronto Star and their Panamanian-based website.

“Our folks are in touch with the authorities in the Turks,” said OPP spokesman Sgt. Peter Leon.

He said the OPP is exploring options to get them back in Ontario. Extradition is one option, but there may be an easier route. “The (Turks government) may deport them. If we know they are coming, we will be waiting for them.”

The Star’s probe of Johnson and White turned up a series of authentic looking bank statements sent to numerous clients for a fee.

In one case, well-respected former Ontario Liberal MPP Eric Cunningham was a target. Cunningham and his wife were in court on divorce proceedings in 2005. In a case that took years, his ex-wife presented banking documents obtained from the detectives that made it look like the former MPP was a wealthy man with assets offshore, an incredible $2.3 million in accounts flung as far as the Cook Islands, Panama, the Bahamas, Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands.

All false, two judges said, vindicating Cunningham. But the case took a financial toll on him as he had to pay lawyers for years to defend his case. His ex-wife’s father funded most of the investigation of Cunningham, but private eyes cooked up the false documents.

In Cunningham’s case and others, the detectives are accused of doing a sort of financial striptease for clients, showing clients (his ex-wife in this case) more and more documents depending on how much they paid in fees. The Holy Grail which clients would finally get (all forged) was the signature card “proving” who had opened the offshore account.

Cunningham said Wednesday he is cautiously pleased. “The wheels of justice grind, but they grind slowly,” said Cunningham, a communications consultant who said he would be happily retired were it not for Internal Affairs.

The Star stories revealed how the Ontario government has little control over the private investigators it licenses. Not much has changed since then, though a top official lost his job.

In another case, four Toronto Catholic School Board employees who were good friends routinely played the same lottery numbers, hoping to make a big score and retire early. One day, one of the four did a random check of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. website and learned the group’s ticket had won $5.7 million six months earlier.

Suspicious of the friend who had checked the number at a convenience store, the group hired Internal Affairs. A “banking sweep” turned up records that appeared to show the friend had won, and sent the money offshore to Barbados and Switzerland. The group confronted their friend who said the convenience store owner had told her they did not win.

An investigation turned out that the store owner was the thief, and he had closed his shop, bought a mansion, a Tim Hortons franchise for his son and several cars. The lottery corporation reimbursed the four friends and the store owner pleaded guilty to fraud.

Johnson and White are also believed by investigators to be behind a series of forged documents that suggest federal minister Julian Fantino, Cunningham, other politicians and a “yellow” journalist at the Star are involved in a bizarre, fictitious financial conspiracy called “Superstar Corruption.”

In a previous interview by email in 2010, Johnson both attacked the Star’s credibility and protested his innocence. In other correspondence, Johnson has mused about his predicament, unable to come home to see family.

“I’ve always liked the Kenny Rogers ballad, ‘The Gambler.’ Good advice. Know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em,” Johnson wrote to the Star at one point. He ended on a cheery note. “As they say at McDonald’s, “Have a nice day!”