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rfmcdonaldFor the past few weeks, the story of Brenda Martin, a Canadian in Mexico accused and later convicted of money laundering, has been prominent in the Canadian newsmedia. Tearfully pleading her innocence on Internet fraud and money laundering charges on nightly newscasts, after her conviction a deal between the Mexican and Canadian governments saw her transferred within days to a correctional facility in Ontario.
The newsmedia seems to have handled the Brenda Martin case as another example of Mexican ill-treatment of Canadians, a prejudice that may have begun back in 2006 with the unsolved murder of Domenic and Nancy Ianiero. Numbers aside (if there are a lot of Canadians in Mexico of course some of them will suffer premature deaths), in the particular case of Brenda Martin her innocence is--as we are discovering--far from established.
What's more, Martin seems to be decidedly at odds with one of her co-defendants, holding her guilty for many of the same reasons that the Mexican state holds Martin herself guilty.
I wonder if anything need be said other than that, for whatever reasons, Brenda Martin is a good actress.
Brenda Martin, a Canadian woman who spent more than two years in a Mexican jail, arrived at an airport in southern Ontario on Thursday and was promptly whisked away to a federal prison.
Martin, from Trenton, Ont., had been working in Mexico and was found guilty last week of money laundering by a Mexican judge. She had been in a Guadalajara-area jail since 2006, with the past few months spent sedated and on suicide watch.
A government-chartered jet carrying Martin touched down at Waterloo Regional Airport shortly before 6 p.m. ET, the CBC's Ron Charles reported.
Accompanied by Canadian officials, Martin was loaded into a Corrections Service of Canada van and taken to the Grand Valley Institute for Women, in nearby Kitchener.
Several friends and supporters were at the airport to greet Martin as her plane touched down on home soil.
One woman held up a sign with "Welcome home, Brenda" written in large black letters. "Woohoo," the friend screamed, "She's home. She's home finally."
The newsmedia seems to have handled the Brenda Martin case as another example of Mexican ill-treatment of Canadians, a prejudice that may have begun back in 2006 with the unsolved murder of Domenic and Nancy Ianiero. Numbers aside (if there are a lot of Canadians in Mexico of course some of them will suffer premature deaths), in the particular case of Brenda Martin her innocence is--as we are discovering--far from established.
According to the 110-page verdict, the judge found Ms. Martin guilty of depositing and transferring illicit funds. Between March and August of 2001, she received nearly $60,000 in Canadian funds in her Mexican bank account, and about $3,000 of it was transferred from the Latvian bank account of one of Mr. Waage's shell companies. Most of the money - $38,700 - was transferred by Ms. Martin from another account in her name.
Ms. Martin also received a $15,000 transfer from Keith Nordick, a Saskatchewan man living in Puerto Vallarta who was Mr. Waage's right-hand man in the scheme.Mr. Nordick pleaded guilty in a California court to fraud and money laundering in 2005.
Ms. Martin also transferred $16,000 from her bank account to Mr. Waage's sister, Lynn Johnston. Ms. Johnston is wanted on fraud charges, but has never been apprehended.
What's more, Martin seems to be decidedly at odds with one of her co-defendants, holding her guilty for many of the same reasons that the Mexican state holds Martin herself guilty.
I wonder if anything need be said other than that, for whatever reasons, Brenda Martin is a good actress.
