Canadian Lawyer

"I never retain investigators to find offshore accounts. From long experience I knew it was impossible to do that." Philip Epstein, Epstein Cole LLP And the White and Johnson affair is not the first time a prominent Canadian law firm was taken for a ride by a private eye. In September 2006, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP hired investigator Juval Aviv to "conduct an in-depth asset investigation of Conrad Black and his related companies," according to an affidavit made by Aviv. The law firm had ties to Hollinger Inc., the Toronto-based holding company Black once controlled. Aviv claims to be a former Israeli commando and secret service agent who runs a New York corporate intelligence firm called Interfor Inc. In August 2007, after Black was convicted of fraud, a hearing was held in Chicago to decide if Black could return to Canada while waiting for his sentencing date. During this hearing, the fruits of Aviv's labour were produced. In a report, Aviv claimed Black had moved at least $60 million from Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. through offshore accounts to Gibraltar over the previous two years. Aviv claimed this information came from unnamed sources. While Black indeed used offshore shell companies, in all of the investigations of his corporate dealings there was no suggestion such a sum had gone missing. Indeed, Black's lawyer, Edward Greenspan, dismissed Aviv in court as a "double-dealing con artist." This stemmed from the fact Aviv claimed to be the leader of a Mossad assassination team in Europe that killed the Palestinians responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre — a story that became the basis of George Jonas' 1984 book Vengeance and the Steven Spielberg movie Munich. Israeli counterterrorism adviser Yigal Carmon, along with other top Israeli officials, have said Aviv was never an assassin, an intelligence operative, or led such a mission. Then, as a consultant to Pan American World Airways, Aviv investigated the 28 October 2013 www.CANADIAN 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland. Aviv then blamed the CIA for allowing the bomb to get aboard the doomed plane to protect a Syrian drug shipment. This was denied by the CIA and, in 2003, Libya admitted responsibility. Hence, in court, Greenspan said Aviv had misled people about "two major world events." Greenspan provided details of Black's personal bank accounts that showed Black couldn't have moved $60 million to Gibraltar. In the end, Aviv's report didn't apparently impact the judge's ruling, although she did deny Black's request to return to Canada. As it turns out, the private investigation industry is one of the most poorly regulated in Canada. Provincial governments oversee the sector; in Ontario, that task falls to the Private Security and Investigative Services Branch (PSISB) of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. For at least the past 10 years, if not longer, the branch hasn't yanked one licence of a private investigator or security consultant. Moreover, to get a licence as a private eye, you need to pass a quick test and have no criminal record in Canada. Such slapdash oversight means mistakes happen. Derrick Snowdy, an Ontario private investigator, is the former owner of Epic Protection Group Ltd., a nowdefunct Toronto private investigation firm. In 2007, Epic hired Gary Beebe as an investigator, who held a licence issued by the PSISB. Beebe was a Canadian-born former Atlanta, Ga.-based police officer who said he'd returned to Canada over a citizenship issue. Yet Snowdy soon discovered there was more to Beebe's past than he let on: In 2005, Beebe had been convicted and sentenced to prison in Georgia for soliciting campaign contributions from would-be donors in return for giving them exclusive government contracts if he was elected as a local sheriff. Beebe L a w ye r m a g . c o m had even promised to not investigate certain violent crimes his contributors might commit, including ensuring a planned murder would go unsolved. After firing Beebe, Snowdy complained to the PSISB about why it had given him a private investigator's licence. "The registrar gave me a scathing letter that doing background checks was my responsibility," he relates, before observing "there's no reason to believe that anyone that hires a private investigator or security guard by virtue of them having a licence isn't a criminal or a terrorist" with a record in another country. In fact, private investigators say it's rare for lawyers to demand credentials or references. Therefore, it's no shocker White and Johnson got away with their scheme for so long and fooled so many lawyers in the process. A TRAIL OF FABRICATIONS T he fact lawyers were hoodwinked by Johnson and White is no surprise given the couple's professional pedigrees. What's known about White is she once worked as an investigator for a subsidiary of Lindquist Avey, a well-regarded forensic accounting firm in Toronto in the '90s later purchased by Kroll. Johnson was a police officer with the Toronto Police Service, where he enjoyed success during his 20-plus years on the force. He became an assistant in the chief's office, a detective sergeant in the intelligence branch, and spent a number of years with internal affairs. Colleagues recall him as a competent and scandal-free officer. After Johnson retired from the force in 1996, he set up Internal Affairs. White founded her own firm, although the couple worked closely together. Initially they carried out some legitimate work. At what point the evidence they provided became

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