Man who brought Fantino pleads guilty to money laundering

Money laundering guilty plea
Aug. 18, 2006. 12:26 PM
JOHN DUNCANSON
STAFF REPORTER


A Toronto lawyer, once considered a rainmaker in city and provincial politics, pleaded guilty to money laundering this morning as his friends including police brass, a former general and a judge looked on.
Peter Shoniker, a former crown attorney was charged in June, 2002 with four counts of money laundering in an RCMP sting operation, involving the movement of $750,000 in cash to a New York bank account.

Shoniker's co-accused Babak (Bobby) Adeli Tabrizi, a Toronto jeweller, did not appear in court today. His case is expected to be heard in September.

Crown attorney Jeffrey Manishen told the court that Shoniker, who is now a Bay St. investment lawyer, met with an undercover police officer in 2003.

Shoniker was told by the undercover officer, that the money had been skimmed from a union pension account.

Shoniker then made four transactions to a bank account in New York, that unknown to him was controlled by the police.

Shoniker's arrest was part of a larger corruption probe that had led to other charges against Toronto police officers. He is the first one to be convicted criminally in the RCMP-led probe which began in 2001.

Shoniker is considered well-connected in provincial Conservative politics and is credited with bringing Jiulian Fantino to Toronto as police chief in 1999.

Fantino was in court today to show support, along with other prominent friends, included retired General Lewis Mackenzie and former deputy police chief Steve Reesor.

Re: Man who brought Fantino pleads guilty to money launderin

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Fantino was in court today to show support, along with other prominent friends, included retired General Lewis Mackenzie and former deputy police chief Steve Reesor.
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Wonderful! I'm glad Fantino took some time to support his ol'friend. Nothing beats having a corrupt friend to rely upon the next time your running for office

Re: Man who brought Fantino pleads guilty to money launderin

I guess Fantino is selective as to whaat criminal elements he's tough on. Half of Toronto's own Conservative Tammany Hall was there - Paul Godfrey, for example.

Throw the book at him.

Re: Man who brought Fantino pleads guilty to money launderin

I read somewhere that Fantino is rumoured to be tipped for the new OPP Commissioner.

Re: Man who brought Fantino pleads guilty to money launderin

Let's hope this 'untouchable' is put where he belongs

JOHN BARBER


If either Julian Fantino or Peter Shoniker still retained any of the tremendous influence they once enjoyed in this city, it would have been deeply disturbing to see them embracing outside the courtroom where Mr. Shoniker pleaded guilty to laundering stolen money last week. But with both of them more or less excised from the body politic they and their friends once dominated, it is merely creepy.

Wasn't Mr. Fantino supposed to be tough on crime? Yet there he was, giving it a big bear hug for all to see. It's hard not to suspect that if Mr. Fantino was still chief of police in this city, Mr. Shoniker and the cabal of Tory do-gooders with which he ran really would be able to persuade themselves they are "untouchable by the police," as Mr. Shoniker boasted to his crooked client -- actually an RCMP officer -- on a wiretap.

So thank heaven for the federal police, who apparently weren't aware that Mr. Shoniker was untouchable in Toronto, and whose investigations have recently busted three of his former Toronto police buddies. RCMP taping of Crown prosecutor Calvin Barry co-operating in Mr. Shoniker's crime did not result in his arrest, alas, but it mercifully removed him from any position of public trust (unless you are foolish enough to count continued membership in the Law Society of Upper Canada in that category).

None of this daunts or shames the former untouchables, so many of whom rallied to support Mr. Shoniker in court last week. Listening to their glowing testimonials, you'd think this crook was some kind of saint -- "caring," "generous," "law enforcement's best friend," "dedicated to the administration of justice." "A decent human being" who hit a "bump in the road" and "will again become a major contributor to society as he was in the past," according to Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey.

One of them, Ron Sandelli, described by defence lawyer Edward Greenspan as a "legendary police officer" and now head of security for the Blue Jays, went so far as to attack the RCMP for daring to "touch" Saint Peter. "Why they would find it necessary to create a fictional crime in order to get Peter Shoniker to commit another crime I don't know," he wrote.

What is it about these people that makes them so resiliently self-righteous? The reason the RCMP targeted Mr. Shoniker couldn't be plainer to a trainee security guard, let alone a "legendary" cop: They suspected he was laundering money for criminals. "Yeah, that's obviously why we were doing it," one RCMP officer told The Globe and Mail's Tim Appleby at the time of Mr. Shoniker's arrest two years ago. "We had information that this was happening."

Mr. Shoniker, champion of justice and noted philanthropist, pleaded guilty to legitimizing the proceeds of crime. He also swindled an extra $50,000 out of his would-be partner in the RCMP sting. He exploited his political connections, including his role in manoeuvring Mr. Fantino into the chief's job in 1999, to provide cover for outright and unabashed corruption. The scary thing is that so many still love him. Even after seeing the truth laid bare in a scathing indictment detailing the man's greed and criminality -- an open-and-shut, irrefutable case -- they hug him tight and make ludicrous excuses. The reason Mr. Shoniker engaged in sophisticated schemes to launder stolen money, they say, is because he had trouble sleeping at night.

But beneath all the special pleading and tear-jerking flummery, there is one message that all Mr. Shoniker's supporters share. It doesn't matter what he did, he was one of us: untouchable. What is most striking about their interventions is not love, certainly not sorrow, but indignation. It's creepy.

There were two completely different Shonikers in court last week. One is a crook who once achieved a dangerous degree of political influence. The other is a perfect saint and a credit to the community. Let's hope the courts put the right one in jail, where he belongs.

jbarber@globeandmail.com

Re: Man who brought Fantino pleads guilty to money launderin

I initially read the thread title as "Man who bought Fantino pleads guilty to money laundering."

Re: Man who brought Fantino pleads guilty to money launderin

I read Christie Blatchford's hagiography in Saturday's Globe. Oh, maybe he had a drinking problem, maybe he was sexually abused as a child, maybe he couldn't sleep, maybe he was traumatized by representing the Mount Cashall victims. Blatch, where's the evidence? Such rubbish. Is't it possible that maybe, just maybe, he was a greedy SOB who wanted to make easy money? Maybe Blatch should disclose that she runs with the same crowd. Blatch, are you a buddy of this slime? Come clean. Thank God for John Barber.

Re: Man who brought Fantino pleads guilty to money launderin

Funny, if this guy was an unconnected nobody, she'd be calling him the scum of the earth and demanding he go to jail for eternity. It's amazing what powerful people can get away with and he almost did. I suspect he will pay very little for it. In a short span of time all will be forgotten and he will regain his place in high society, one of the rich and blameless.

Re: Man who brought Fantino pleads guilty to money launderin

...or if he were a prominent left-leaning figure, he'd be denounced as even more vile than if he were a nobody.

Re: Man who brought Fantino pleads guilty to money launderin

...or if he were a prominent left-leaning figure, he'd be denounced as even more vile than if he were a nobody.

Click to expand...

No kidding. Look at all the vile directed toward Svend, for instance - probably more than towards Gordon Campbell, who got caught driving drunk, IMO, much more dangerous and a greater offence, as after all, Svend immediately returned the ring he "stole".