Fraudulent Business Loans or Trading Schemes Involving Advance Fee Front Money Scams
Carlington Sales and Alexandre Legault Scam
Advance Fee Works on West Africans Too
"Ubupupu bwafulisha" (There is too much stealing).
In Zambia it is reported that US$6 million meant for the purchase of maize has gone missing in a deal between President Chiluba's economic adviser Donald Chanda and Carlington Sales Company of Canada. Carlington, owned by Alexandre Legault has recently been the focus of a news show investigative inquiry on CBC's Disclosure program.
There is was stated that Carlington is an elaborate advance fee fraud operation which presents itself as a major commodity exporter but fails to ever make shipments after payment.
A former employee explained how, in one case, grocery store rice was simply emptied into an unmarked plastic bag to be sent to potential buyers as a reassuring sample of quality.
Carlington Sales Canada Corporation's Foreign Agents
Ben-Menashe, Ari
Fraser, Herbert
Hooper, Peter
10/03 - Here's an update on the Carlington Sales Company situation:
According to the media, Carlington Sales filed bankruptcy last year after the Government of Zambia and the British lawyers were getting close to seize everything.
Ever the entrepreneurs, Alex Legault and Ari Ben-Menashe immediately started another company ( Dickens & Madson, 310, avenue Victoria , Westmount, QC H3Z 2M9 , (514) 483-3344 ) .
Things got ugly very quickly with the RCMP investigating Ben-Menashe over the Tsvangirai recording. Meanwhile, Legault had his own set of troubles.
Alex Legault is wanted in Louisiana and Florida for some ponzi-scams he had set up in the past. He was sentenced to a total of 189 years of jail and the FBI has asked the RCMP to extradite him back to the US .
Legault, having claimed refugee status 13 years ago was protected by Canadian law and was never extradited. Furthermore, he fathered a huge litter of children hoping that would help his case. CBC called it "immigration by procreation" !
Then a recent court ruling changed everything. Immigration Canada issued a deportation order last June and Legault was supposed to leave the country for a destination of his choice. He failed to show up on this date and is now a full blown fugitive, both in Canada and in the US .
Several companies are suing them for non delivery of goods and refusal to refund the deposit including the case of Mr. Nigel Whitely, a Scottish businessman, owner of Merchants International (Edinburgh, Scotland ). Whitely signed a contract for rice delivery to Ghana and forwarded US$250,000 as a deposit.
With enough evidence to prove that this was outright fraud the lawyers managed to force Ben-Menashe into refunding Mr. Whitely. Others continue to fight for restitution.
To this day, he has never appeared in a Canadian court for financial fraud charges since he always settles out of court. The only time he has ever had to go to court was for criminal charges pressed by his wife and mother-in-law for assault and battery.
She evidently found out that her husband wasn’t a real successful businessman, but rather a big time crook, so she kicked him out of their $3,500,000 mansion in Westmount. He apparently didn't appreciate the expulsion.
