B.C. Hells Angel fighting extradition on N.Y. stock fraud charges

A British Columbia member of the Hells Angels is fighting his extradition to the United States to answer to charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering brought by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Courtney Vasseur is one of 10 suspects U.S. federal prosecutors charged with the crimes in April 2021.

Curtis Lehner, another B.C. man among the accused, is also fighting extradition.

“Through their pump-and-dump schemes, Lehner, Vasseur ... and their co-conspirators generated at least approximately $35 million in proceeds from the sale of the shares they secretly controlled,” the U.S. attorney says in the indictment.

Vasseur did not answer questions from CTV News outside court on Tuesday.

At the time of Vasseur’s arrest, B.C.’s anti-gang task force confirmed to CTV News that he is a member of the Nomad Chapter of the Hells Angels.

The extradition hearing for both men is scheduled for five days at B.C. Supreme Court.

"It is a federal government decision to decide to proceed on these types of extradition warrants,” said Vancouver criminal lawyer Sarah Leamon, who is not involved in the case.

“But that means our courts do have to be involved to consider whether or not there is evidence to support the allegations."

The New York indictment also references a number of unindicted co-conspirators, including one referred to as ‘CC-5’ who is also identified as a Canadian.

U.S. prosecutors accuse this person of co-ordinating false and misleading promotional campaigns in order to inflate the value of stocks controlled by the defendants.

In court, Vasseur’s lawyer called the alleged co-conspirators fraudsters.

"There is nothing in the record of the case that should give the court any confidence in the reliability of these people,” Paul McMurray told the judge.

In a civil case borne out of the same investigation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is suing disgraced Vancouver businessman David Sidoo, who was convicted of fraud in the college admissions scandal and served time in a federal detention centre south of Seattle. 

He and seven other defendants in that case are accused of using the alleged "pump-and-dump" fraud scheme to defraud investors of US$145 million.

At the conclusion of the hearing, if the judge decides Vasseur and Lehner should be extradited, they can still appeal.

"There are appeals that are available if a person is committed to extradition, so there's a lot of legal avenues still that could be potentially exhausted even if the judge determines that this extradition is going to go through from the judicial perspective,” Leamon said.

In the event an appeal is unsuccessful, Canada’s federal justice minister is required to sign off on all extraditions and that has to happen before suspects can be turned over to U.S. authorities to stand trial.