NEWMARKET, Ont. — A Toronto businessman linked to the Rahim Jaffer controversy was cleared of unrelated fraud charges as the prosecution withdrew those charges Thursday, saying it had no reasonable prospect of conviction.
Nazim Gillani and his business associate, ex-Argo offensive lineman Mike Mihelic, were charged with fraud over $5,000 last November after Rona Inc./Noble Trade was defrauded of approximately $1.4 million in wire transfers in July 2009. Former Conservative MP Jaffer was not involved in this incident.
Crown attorney Jeffrey Costain withdrew the charges against both men, saying the prosecution’s evidence “doesn’t meet the necessary standard of a reasonable prospect of conviction.
“The Crown has reviewed this matter thoroughly and determined that while there were reasonable grounds to lay a charge, the evidence available does not meet the necessary standard of a reasonable prospect of conviction,” Costain told Justice Howard Chisvin.
The money taken from RONA was transferred to accounts in Hong Kong held by Xiabong Ben Wang, said Costain. When these accounts were frozen, he returned all the money to RONA.
Wang gave a statement to York Regional Police in September 2009 in which he alleged that a third man introduced him to Gillani and Mihelic, and that they offered him an opportunity to make $60,000 if he were to accept some wire transfers into his account and then disperse the funds to other foreign accounts.
Costain said there is “nothing to corroborate the evidence of Wang, nor indeed is there any evidence linking Gillani, Mihelic or the third man directly to any impugned transfer of funds.”
Costain said he decided Wang’s evidence required “additional support to ensure the procedural safeguards against wrongful convictions are in place.”
Gillani’s lawyer Brian Greenspan said there was no basis to allege misconduct or impropriety by his client.
“There was a certain level of suspicion that has been fostered by the press, rather than hard facts. These suspicions have been perpetrated by questionable sources,” Greenspan said outside court. “Those sources are unreliable and false. Mr. Gillani just wants to get on with his life. It was wrong to characterize him or other people as dishonest simply because they are charged with fraud."
The media has wrongly portrayed his client as a “shady” character simply on the basis of a fraud charge — which has been withdrawn, Greenspan said.
Gillani followed his lawyer's advice and never appeared in court because he had the court’s permission to do so.
“Yet it was reported as if he were doing something wrong," Greenspan said. "This was character assassination by a thousand tiny swords."
The withdrawal of charges against Gillani and Mihelic comes the day after the RCMP closed its files on Jaffer and his wife, MP Helena Guergis, deciding no charges would be laid.
That decision effectively cleared the couple of any allegations of criminal wrongdoings.
She resigned as minister of state for women after private investigator Derrick Snowdy passed on allegations involving Jaffer and his partners to Conservative lawyer Arthur Hamilton, who informed the Prime Minister’s Office.
It was alleged that Jaffer, a former Tory MP, was using his connections in Ottawa and his wife in an effort to attract clients to his new company, Green Power Generation, which seeks funds for other companies’ environmental initiatives.
