The trial of a former financial manager of Sipkne’katik First Nation neared its end Monday in Halifax as a Crown prosecutor presented his final arguments in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
For the past four and a half weeks, jurors have heard the prosecution’s case that between January 2009 and December 2010, Jeffery Cecil Hayes allegedly siphoned off more than $300,000 from band coffers.
“Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure,” Crown attorney Rick Hartlen said Monday, paraphrasing a quote attributed to the American author Mark Twain.
“In January of 2009, Mr. Hayes walked head on into a circumstance where there was a victim, in the sense of the entire entity of the Shubenacadie First Nation, who was desperately then in need of a financial officer they could trust.”
‘Handed the keys to the kingdom’
Hayes is charged with theft, fraud, breach of trust and possession of stolen property.
The band, formerly Shubenacadie First Nation, officially changed its name to Sipekne’katik in July 2014.
“When Jeff Hayes walked into that position in January of ’09 … he was effectively handed the keys to the kingdom,” Hartlen said.
Harten outlined how, after Hayes was hired, he reactivated a personal company, Amcrest Management. The prosecutor walked the jury through a series of payments of band funds to Amcrest, some as high as $25,000.
Hartlen disparaged Hayes’s explanation that he used the account to pay consultants who were hired legitimately — but didn’t want to be linked financially to the band.
“That makes no sense. It’s unbelievable,” he said.
Contractors never heard of Amcrest
Hartlen pointed out that the contractors in question were eventually paid $25,000 by a different band account, and they testified they’d never heard of Amcrest.
As part of their investigation in 2013, RCMP seized a luxury home in Halibut Bay off Herring Cove Road under proceeds of crime rules. They also seized two 2009 Jeeps owned by Hayes and valued at roughly $50,000.
Hayes called no witnesses in his defence. His lawyer is scheduled to present final arguments Monday afternoon.
Justice John Murphy has said he’ll read his charge to the jury on Tuesday and Wednesday, and that the jury would likely be sequestered on Wednesday afternoon until they deliver a verdict.