Conditional sentence for 'minor' part in $3.2M copper wire scheme

A "minor participant" in a copper wire scheme that saw employees embezzle millions in copper wire from a Cooke Aquaculture business will serve a community sentence.

Leonard Totten, 51, of Seaside Drive in Back Bay, received a two-year conditional sentence with curfew for the first year on Thursday in Saint John provincial court. Totten, who pleaded guilty to a single charge of fraud over $5,000 in January, was one of four charged in August 2022 in what police called a "copper wire purchasing and selling scheme" that Cooke Aquaculture said cost $3.2 million.

In December, Patrick Brennan, 57, was sentenced to three years in prison and a $100,000 fine, with court hearing in an agreed statement of facts that he had been a manager at Cooke subsidiary Kelly Cove Salmon from 2012 to 2021. During that time more than 1,500 purchases of bare copper wire were made, almost 80 per cent of which were approved by Brennan, according to the statement. The shipments were then sold through a salvage dealer, and Brennan used the proceeds to buy drugs, which he shared with others, the statement read.

The sales attributable to Brennan were valued at $2.8 million, and Cooke said the total cost to the organization was $3.2 million, according to the statement of facts.

Cooke then notified the RCMP in 2021 after noticing a rise in costs at Brennan's department, according to the statement, and after an investigation, Brennan and Totten, along with Melanie Pirie, 46, of Deer Island, and Andrew Peters, 76, of Pennfield, were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud over $5,000, possession of proceeds of crime and transporting the proceeds of crime. Peters pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud and is set for a two-day sentencing hearing in October, and Pirie is set for a five-day trial next February.

In court Thursday, Crown prosecutor Andrew Pollabauer said that Totten, who worked at Cooke from 1996 until 2021, is responsible for transporting 31 shipments detected by forensic accountants over a 10-week period from January to March 2021, with a value of $210,450 in wire.

Totten's lawyer Reid Chedore said the defence concurs with the time period, but his client maintains he only went 11 times, and that Brennan went with him the first time.

While he said Totten "knew from the first time what was up," Chedore described his client as a "minion" with no control, and that he had been told where to go by his work supervisor. He said he never saw how much money was contained in the pay envelopes he would hand over, and that he never received any money.

Chedore said his client agreed that Brennan was "generous" with cocaine for personal use but that Brennan had passed drugs out to others, and it was not "quid pro quo."

Judge W. Andrew Lemesurier said he understood Totten was being paid in cocaine for the deliveries.

"Well, he's receiving cocaine, yes," Chedore said.

"Well, that's his compensation, otherwise, why would he be doing it?" the judge asked.

"He's getting cocaine," Chedore conceded, adding that others also received the "tokens" from Brennan.

LeMesurier said Totten has two children from a prior relationship and works as a floor manager at another company, who issued letters of support and said his job would be there regardless. Chedore called his client a "hard-working" man with no criminal record who was going through addictions issues and has tackled them since the arrests, and said a two-year conditional sentence order would be appropriate.

"I just want to apologize for everything I've done. I've messed it up," Totten told the court, telling LeMesurier he was off the drugs.

Pollabauer said that the scheme is alleged to have made 40 per cent of the value of the copper from those 31 shipment, of which Totten's share would amount to $28,000, although he said it was "converted to cocaine." He asked for a $28,000 fine and two years in jail. He said while Totten was an employee, it's still a breach of trust because he knew the scheme was fraud and he participated in it, even if not to the same degree as Brennan.

In a victim impact statement read by LeMesurier, Cooke CEO Glenn Cooke said that the scheme caused the company "significant financial loss" and set back construction projects, hurt its reputation and its relationship with suppliers.

"Cooke remains deeply disappointed in the conduct of this former employee and is thankful justice is being served," Cooke said in the statement.

LeMesurier found that Totten committed a breach of trust as an employee by failing to stop the scheme and whether it was 11 or 31 shipments, it took place over an extended period. But he said Totten was a "minor participant" who was "vulnerable" due to his addictions issues, and Brennan knew that.

"I am of the view that had the accused been thinking clearly, and not addicted to cocaine, he likely would not have been involved," said LeMesurier, who wished Totten luck and said he expects not to see him back in court.

Totten's sentence includes a year of probation, 50 hours of community sentence and an order not to consume or possess drugs.

LeMesurier declined to make any order for restitution.

Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Telegraph-Journal