CORNWALL – Former Cornwall financial adviser Gilles Latour has pleaded guilty to nine fraud-related charges.
The plea deal, heard Thursday afternoon (Feb. 8) in a Cornwall courtroom, avoids a long and costly trial that was scheduled to run three weeks, starting March 12.
Latour, principal of the former Latour Financial Group Inc., had been facing a total of 50 fraud-related charges.
He represented himself before Judge Rick Leroy.
The fraud charges cover eight different investors, who were embezzled for a total of $1,278,750. The dollar amounts range from $15,000 for one victim to $611,750 for another.
Many of the clients were defrauded over several years, starting in 2008, before the initial charges were laid in September 2014 when police arrested Latour at his office.
The ninth fraud-related charge involves forging documents for a client by making up a Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) and a summary of investments.
Latour will be sentenced March 29, 2018 at 10 a.m. – a date originally set aside for the trial.
Crown Andre White told the court that would allow Latour enough time to get “certain things in order.”
“No comment,” said Latour, when approached by Cornwall Newswatch outside the courtroom.
Despite declaring bankruptcy in July 2016 and also facing a $900,000 fine from the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada, Latour has remained optimistic about the outcome of his case and his future.
“My name is pretty much mud in the city and as far as the financial industry,” he told Cornwall Newswatch in an exclusive interview in November 2016. “But I plan on making sure that everyone knows the truth about what actually went on…I will definitely clear my name.”