Warrant issued for runaway, disbarred Fredericton lawyer charged with 8 counts of fraud
A Canada-wide warrant has been issued for a former deputy attorney general and disbarred Fredericton lawyer charged with eight counts of fraud for allegedly misappropriating more than $700,000 from clients before he disappeared from the province several years ago.
The Fredericton Police Force is looking to locate Yassin Choukri, 53, for seven counts of indictable fraud over $5,000, and one count of indictable fraud under $5,000, spokesperson Alycia Bartlett said Friday.
Choukri's last known address is in the Greater Toronto area, she said.
Choukri was disbarred by the Law Society of New Brunswick in 2017 after a discipline hearing determined he had misappropriated more than $720,000 from 10 former clients over several years.
The law society handed its evidence over to the Fredericton police in late 2017. Earlier this year, executive director Marc Richard had called on police to "move" on the file. "Enough is enough," he had said.
On Friday, Richard said police "deserve credit for working hard on the file" and proceeding with charges.
"The public needs to have confidence that those who break the law and get caught will pay for it, especially when it comes to repeated thefts committed by someone in a position of trust," he said.
"I mean, our role here in the law society is to uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of justice."
The charges were laid Friday, after being approved by the Crown, said Bartlett.
New Brunswick is one of only a handful of jurisdictions in Canada where criminal charges must be pre-approved by a Crown prosecutor before being laid in court.
Bartlett described the investigation as "significant." It dates back to December 2016, when police received two complaints, she said.
In 2018, investigators had to seek some support in forensic accounting, including experts in financial analysis and forensic accounting management.
"Through their audit, we got enough information to be able to get production orders for financial information. And since we have received all of the final reports into those components of the investigation, we did end up with enough information to get the charges approved by the Crown."
The investigation took a "significant" amount of time and resources, Bartlett said, but she could not immediately provide an estimate.
Largest in decades
The law society's disciplinary hearing found some of Choukri's clients never received money they won in settlements.
Because Choukri did not attend the 2017 hearing to respond to the charges, under the law society's rules he was deemed to have admitted to them.
It was the largest misappropriation of funds by a member in decades, the organization said.
Some of Choukri's clients were repaid through the law society's compensation fund, which comes out of the pockets of every lawyer in New Brunswick. That cost the law society $231,149.53.
The society also spent more than $121,000 to hire a custodian to oversee all of Choukri's files, plus another $43,000 to investigate the case.
In Mississauga in 2017
Choukri served as the deputy chief of staff for former premier Bernard Lord, his former law partner.
He was appointed deputy attorney general and deputy minister of justice in 2003, but left government after the Progressive Conservatives lost the 2006 election.
In 2010, the Alward government appointed him the public intervener for hearings before the Energy and Utilities Board.
He abandoned his legal practice and disappeared in 2016.
In the summer of 2017, the law society had tracked him down at an apartment in Mississauga, Ont., and served him with two notices.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Choukri is asked to contact Det. Matt LeBlanc at 506-460-2300 or matthew.leblanc@fredericton.ca.
