Ex-New Brunswick Deputy AG Who Gambled Client Funds Faces Prison

The former Deputy Attorney General of the Canadian River province of New Brunswick stole $481,148 from his clients spell serving as a private lawyer. Now, Crown prosecutors in Moncton, N.B., are asking for a three-year prison term for the ex-prosecutor who fled the responsibility after pillaging client accounts.

Yassin Choukri served as New Brunswick’s lieutenant AG from 2003 until 2006 when he was displaced past the election of a new provincial administration. In 2010, he was ordained the public intervener for hearings before the province’s Energy and Utilities Board.

But around the clip he left hand authorities and returned to buck private apply inwards the New Brunswick capital, Fredericton, Choukri had highly-developed a gambling addiction. This led to wicked financial difficulties, prosecutors said inwards judicature lowest Friday.

On the Run

Between 2014 and 2016, Choukri bit by bit withdrew money from clients’ trustingness accounts below his hold in in installments of several m dollars at a time.

The money was in the first place used to repay deferred payment scorecard debt and cash advances from Casino New Brunswick inwards Moncton, according to prosecutors.

Choukri’s lawyer said he would mainly toy poker. The Hendon Mob Database lists a Canadian River participant from Fredericton with the same gens who cashed in ternion tournaments 'tween 2013 and 2014 for a summate of $11,987.

On Sept. 27, 2016, checks drawn from the corporate trust accounts began to reverberate and Choukri disappeared. His married woman reported him missing on September 29.

In August 2020, he was tracked downwardly to Mississauga, Ont., where he had naturalized a program for problem gamblers, and arrested.

In October 2023, sevener years after going on the lam, Choukri pleaded hangdog to a bingle bursting charge of theft of over $5,000.

‘Cautionary Tale’

On Friday, Choukri told the court of justice that he was “ashamed” of everything that had happened. Speaking inwards French, he apologized to his family, former clients, the effectual profession, and the justness system, CBC News reported.

“It is a prophylactic tale,” Crown prosecutor Vicky Doucette told reporters. “This was a gambling addiction. It shows how high up someone tin be and how low-toned they can buoy fall. He is now a man that lives with his mother… Now he’s sledding to get to compensate his debt to society. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be a monetary debt. It’s going to be a point of clip in a federal institution.”

The prosecution isn’t seeking restitution from the defendant because he has no money. All the cash in hand he stole from his clients are gone, Doucette said.

“They go to the casinos now,” she added.

Choukri will follow sentenced on December 18.

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