News!! Lefebvre pleads guilty to charges

Gulf Islands Driftwood, Wednesday, July 18, 2007

By sean mcintyre

Part-time Salt Spring Island resident John Lefebvre faces a $250,000 fine, up to five years in jail and may have to forfeit $100 million after pleading guilty in a Manhattan courtroom last week to illegally transferring funds over the internet.

According to documents filed during a plea allocution on July 10, Lefebvre, 55, knowingly took part in illegal activities between 1999 and 2007 when he and his Canadian business partner Stephen Lawrence controlled a majority stake in NETeller, an online money transfer service based on the Isle of Man.

Lefebvre, whose Salt Spring real estate portfolio includes several Sunset Drive waterfront properties and the Vesuvius Inn, will be sentenced in November.

“I’m really grateful for your concern but I am advised to not discuss my case and must follow that advice,” Lefebvre told the Driftwood via an e-mail from California earlier this week.

A majority of the company’s transactions involved online gambling services, made illegal in the United States when new legislation came into effect in October 2006.

Lefebvre has lived under a court order at his Malibu, California bungalow since federal investigators arrested him in January.

As part of his plea, Lefebvre has reportedly agreed to cooperate with the government’s efforts to curtail illegal gambling operations in the United States.

Aside from spending more than $1 million on renovating the Vesuvius pub, Lefebvre has frequently used his wealth to support local charities and the arts.

Lefebvre said he plans to return to Salt Spring soon and confirmed he has no plans to either stop renovating or to sell the Vesuvius Inn.

In 2005, the University of Calgary alumnus donated $1.2 million to his alma mater’s faculty of fine arts.