Entrepreneur saw ‘red flags’ in pitch from man accused of financial crimes

A Moncton entrepreneur testified there were “red flags” in documents from a man on trial for alleged financial crimes.

“The whole document is problematic,” Olivier Bertrand said of a letter of intent from Daniel Bard. 

Bertrand was testifying on the fourth day of Bard’s retrial in Moncton provincial court. Bard faces 19 charges laid in 2022 alleging fraud, theft and money laundering. 

Bertrand testified he met Bard in July 2018 while seeking $500,000 from investors for his startup company Elumicate. 

He testified Bard instead proposed seeking more than a $1 million in investment funding. A subsequent letter of intent raised that to $6 million and elsewhere referenced $20 million. 

It was that letter, Bertrand testified, that raised alarms given incorrect financial figures and other errors. 

The document included a provision that Elumicate pay Bard $20,000 to help secure the larger funding. Bertrand testified the terms called for the money to be held in a trust account until the larger funding was in place. 

Crown prosecutor Andrew Pollabauer asked what that trust account provision meant to him. 

“Zero risk,” Bertrand testified. 

“I write a cheque for $20,000, it goes in a trust account, and as long as we don’t have the $6 million or $20 million in the bank account, the $20,000 are safe in the trust.”

But, Bertrand said, concerns among his business partners, Charles Léger and Christian Michaud, led to no payment. 

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Witnesses in the first week of Daniel Bard’s fraud retrial in Moncton testify about the money they lost in loan deals gone wrong.

Bertrand testified he told Bard that during a September 2018 conversation. 

“That there were too many red flags for us, and we were going to find another solution,” he recounted telling Bard.

Bard is charged with attempting to defraud Elumicate.

Bertrand’s testimony followed Donald Gauvin, who began testifying Thursday that he provided Bard with $200,000, which was expected to result in greater financing to help grow his Tracadie business. 

But the financing Bard promised would arrive within weeks never appeared, Gauvin said.

He said he had borrowed the initial deposit from a person in the Moncton area and is still repaying that person back. 

Through a series of cross-examination questions, Bard’s lawyer Nelson Peters suggested Gauvin didn’t understand what he signed.

“No I understood very well,” Gauvin said.

Peters then suggested Gauvin didn’t understand because his primary language is French, which was the language used when talking to Bard, and the document was in English.

“I disagree, I understood extremely well,” Gauvin said.

Later, Peters asked why Gauvin’s memory of interactions with Bard was better than other events around that time. 

“Becasue he came to attack my family, and my company, and my integrity, and that will never be forgotten,” Gauvin said. 

He nodded when asked if he was intensely angry and said he came to see justice done. 

Peters asked if he wanted Bard jailed. 

“I just want my money back,” Gauvin replied. “The court will do what is necessary with Mr. Bard’s file, I just want my money back.”

Bard’s trial is scheduled to continue next week.