A man being held on child sex charges in B.C. will stay behind bars while he awaits extradition to stand trial for his role in a $4.1-million scam targeting seniors.
Surrey resident Michael Johnson, 34, is accused of working as a telemarketer for a company that phoned elderly Americans and told them they had won a cash prize, but needed to mail in a fee to receive their money.
Johnson has been charged with wire fraud and mail fraud for his role in the scheme, and a B.C. Supreme Court judge rejected his application for bail in a decision posted online Friday. The U.S. is seeking Johnson's extradition to face those charges, and a hearing is scheduled for January.
The telemarketing scheme was operated by Vancouver brothers Stephen and Bruce Ironside, who were sentenced to prison time in the U.S. after pleading guilty to fraud in 2008.
According to court documents, the brothers are expected to testify that they paid Johnson $43,000 for his services over the year the scam operated in 2007. A 93-year-old woman from California is also expected to take the stand, giving evidence that Johnson asked her to mail him $1,500 to claim a $6-million prize.
If convicted on the fraud charges, he faces up to life in a U.S. prison.
Johnson was arrested in Calgary in April, and has pleaded guilty since then to unrelated charges of child luring, possession of child pornography and fraud related to offences committed in Surrey and Delta. He has yet to be sentenced for those crimes.
The child-sex charges date back to 2008 and 2009. Johnson was released from custody on bail after his arrest for those crimes but had been evading police since June 2010.
When officers located him in Alberta this year, they say he was using a disabled man's identification to get food vouchers and other forms of social assistance.
Johnson has also admitted to posting a fraudulent apartment rental ad on Craigslist in 2010 and collecting a $450 damage deposit from a pair of new parents for a suite they were never given the keys to.
