Canadian Lunar Embassy Operator Sentenced
Two-year prison sentence, $500,000
fine for defrauding bank, investors; firearms charges dropped as
part of plea bargain agreement.
LONDON, Ontario /LUNAR JOURNAL/ 12
MAY — Lisa Fulkerson has been sentenced to two years in
penitentiary for defrauding a local bank and individual investors
of more than $1 million.
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Lisa Fulkerson, Canadian
Lunar Embassy operator, was sentenced to two years in
prison for fraud.
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Fulkerson has also been ordered to
make restitution of more than $476,000.
Fulkerson — who sold plots of land
on the moon as part of a business enterprise involving the
Nevada-based Lunar
Embassy — pleaded guilty to seven charges of fraud over
$5,000 involving her Internet company and lunar property.
Another 15 allegations, including
firearms charges were dropped. She is scheduled to appear on May 20 to set a date for trial for an assault
charge.
The 33-year-old Chatham, Ontario,
woman said: "I'm very sorry" before being sentenced in the Ontario
Court of Justice on May 11.
Judith Laprise, whom Fulkerson bilked
out of about $265,000, said she doubted Fulkerson's sincerity.
Laprise, who taught Fulkerson's
children, says she expects to lose her house because of the fraud.
She had attended most of Fulkerson's appearances at court.
"I don't think I'll ever see a penny,"
Laprise told reporters.
Fulkerson served about three months
in jail before her plea last week.
Fulkerson's lawyer, Dave Jacklin,
says Fulkerson was "robbing Peter to pay Paul" when she committed
the frauds.
Jacklin said that Fulkerson was a
successful business woman who got in "over her head" financially.
"She borrowed money from people who
were charging usurious rates," Jacklin told the court. "She is
extremely remorseful, but she found herself between a rock and a
hard place."
Talking to reporters after the case,
Jacklin said that any money Fulkerson had gained from the frauds
went to pay off "loan sharks." Jacklin said Fulkerson should be
able to pay the restitution when she gets out of prison.
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"She was a very successful business
person," Jacklin added.
Fulkerson had previously pleaded
guilty to failing to appear in court on Nov. 12. She was sentenced
to time already served. She was captured in Las Vegas in
January,
selling hand cream at a mall outside a casino. She has been in
jail since that time.
Crown Attorney Fred Creed told the
court Fulkerson had devised what he called a "kiting scheme, the
most complicated one I've seen in four years prosecuting frauds."
Creed said Fulkerson made fraudulent
daily payments to a bank account in an attempt to keep ahead of
her creditors. A forensic audit showed that between
October 2000 and November 2001, Fulkerson made about $43 million
in deposits, but only about $2 million was legitimate.
Creed also told the court the Bank of
Nova Scotia in Chatham, which lost about
$627,000 in the scheme, wanted individual investors to be paid off
first.
One of the frauds involved a local
contractor who gave Fulkerson $300,000 to cover costs of buying
American rights to the lunar sales business and for advertising. When they tried to get their money
back, Fulkerson gave them a phony check certified from a bank in
Grand Rapids, Mich.
The franchise rights were purchased from the
Lunar Embassy, a novelty moon deed company based near Reno,
Nevada. Fulkerson dubbed her enterprise "Moonland
Registry" and served as the "ambassador"
for Lunar Embassy in Canada.
Lunar Embassy is operated by Dennis Hope, who contends
that he owns the moon as the result of a dubious claim
he supposedly filed in
1980. Hope had gambled
with Fulkerson in Las Vegas before she became a fugitive.
Chatham-Kent Police Service Detective
Constable Doug Friesen told reporters that the investigation into
Fulkerson is
closed.
"We have no evidence there are any
more victims out there," said Friesen. He conceded there could be
more people who were simply too embarrassed to come forward.
In accepting the joint submission on
sentencing, Judge Mark Hornblower told Fulkerson she had breached
the public's trust.
"This was an egregious breach of
trust," Hornblower told Fulkerson. "People were placing their reliance on you as a respected
member of the business community that you would treat their
investments with respect."
From Lunar Journal
staff and wire reports
SOURCES: Emediawire,
Toronto
Star, Las
Vegas Sun, Chatham
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