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 Editorials | Issues | March 2008 
Martin Snared in Bribe-Stained Justice System: Waage
 Charles Rusnell - Edmonton Journal
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| | Alyn Richard Waage arrested in Costa Rica. | | |
Edmonton - Alyn Waage laughs bitterly when he is told Mexico is insisting that Canada respect its sovereignty and let the Mexican justice system process the case of his former employee, Canadian Brenda Martin.
"That's not a justice system down there," he said. "It's all about bribes."
Supporters of Martin, who has been jailed without trial for more than two years, are calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ask Mexican president Felipe Calderon to release Martin under a section of the Mexican constitution that allows the government to expel undesirables from the country. Martin's supporters believe she has no chance of a fair trial in Mexico. Neither does Waage.
In an interview today with The Journal, Waage spun a tale of secret meetings and bribery that reached to the highest levels of the Mexican justice system. None of Waage's allegations about his dealings with the Mexican justice system have been proven, and there is no way to verify Waage's story. But the facts show he was charged with a relatively minor crime and granted bail despite having been caught red-handed with $4.5 million in a private jet at Puerto Vallarta airport in 2001.
Waage, 61, is serving a 10-year sentence in a North Carolina jail for masterminding what is believed to be one of the biggest Internet-based frauds in history. The former Edmontonian pleaded guilty in 2005 in California to defrauding about $60 million from 15,000 investors worldwide.
He ran his scam from a cliffside mansion in Puerto Vallarta between 1999 and 2001. Waage hired Martin, now 51, to work as his chef and house manager. She spent 10 months in his employ before he fired her for insulting his elderly mother. Waage paid her severance of $26,000. She invested $10,000 in what she thought was his investment business. When he found out she had invested, he refunded her money.
Mexican authorities arrested her five years after Waage's arrest and charged her with money laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy based on the $10,000 investment.
What knowledge of, or involvement in, the scheme did Martin have?
"None. Absolutely none," Waage said in a telephone interview from prison. "The question no one has asked is why the hell would she invest $10,000 in the company after I fired her if she knew it was a fraud and a scam and get her boyfriend to do the same thing? It makes no bloody sense."
So why was she arrested?
"It is straight out-and-out kidnapping for the money that a prosecutor thinks I owe him for the money he didn't get," Waage said.
Waage explained that the money drop for his scheme - the place where investors sent their cheques - was in Belize. He flew there regularly in a chartered jet to collect the proceeds, often accompanied by Puerto Vallarta's former deputy police chief, Gonzalo Cuevas Perez, whom he had hired as his head of security.
On April 19, 2001, Waage flew from Costa Rica, where he had bought a ranch, to Belize where he picked up $4.5 million in cash and cheques and returned to Puerto Vallarta. Cuevas was with him.
"The army was waiting for me," Waage said. "Not the police, the army. They had been tipped off that a major drug dealer was coming in with a large sum of money from drugs. So I was arrested and charged with money laundering and failing to declare the money. Of course I did declare the money but that is beside the point because they just wanted to arrest me.
"The following day my representatives made a deal with the federal prosecutor that if he got a half-million dollars, everything would go away," Waage said. "I would be given back my money like it never happened."
Waage said his representatives met the prosecutor in a downtown Puerto Vallarta restaurant and were prepared to hand over a $50,000 cash downpayment when a senior Mexican army officer showed up. A dispute arose over who should be paid by Waage.
"(The army officer) said, 'No, no, no, this is a major drug dealer and I can't have this crap going on. This is my bread and butter, and so we were transferred to Puente Grande prison (in Guadalajara)."
The prosecutor eventually won the tug-of-war over Waage.
"Suddenly the army goes away and the prosecutor says, 'it is not really a money laundering issue and you really did declare the money, so maybe it is just a contraband thing and we will get it all worked out."
In fact, Waage was simply charged with bringing contraband into Mexico. Cuevas, the former deputy police chief, served just 15 days in prison and was never charged with any crime.
Waage said he fired the lawyer who had arranged to pay the bribe and hired another lawyer. This lawyer did not believe in paying off the prosecutors. He took Waage's case to the Mexican court of appeal and although Waage was wanted in Edmonton for mortgage fraud, he was released on "bail" of $2.2 million.
"I posted the bail and left the country," Waage said. He fled to Costa Rica where he was arrested two years later and extradited to California. Waage said the bail money went to senior court officials.
"And so now the prosecutor is mad because he didn't get his money," Waage said. "Somebody has to pay and that's it, or she isn't getting out."
crusnell(at)thejournal.canwest.com |
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