Dane Skinner (rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Sheldon Spackman

another delay

New trial dates set for man charged in $2.6 million fraud case

Dec 18, 2020 | 12:47 PM

New trial dates have been set for a Sylvan Lake man accused in an alleged $2.6 million fraud case reportedly involving a ‘revolutionary fracking product’.

Dane Michael Skinner, 56, was previously scheduled for a seven-week trial starting March 1, 2021.

However, a new four-week jury trial is now scheduled to begin on Sept. 8, 2021 – a date well beyond Skinner’s ‘Jordan date’ of Jan. 24, 2021.

A 2016 decision from the Supreme Court of Canada – often called the ‘Jordan decision’ – stipulates that a trial must begin within 30 months of charges being laid in Court of Queen’s Bench cases.

Skinner was arrested on July 25, 2018 and faces counts of fraud over $5,000, and laundering proceeds of crime.

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He was arrested after an extensive and complex, years-long investigation by Blackfalds RCMP and Red Deer Financial Crimes Unit which began in 2013.

According to police, the alleged offences took place between Dec. 5, 2007 and Feb. 28, 2013 in Lacombe.

The offenses are said to involve two numbered companies (1518869 Alberta Ltd. and 1367158 Alberta Ltd.), as well as N.E.X.T. Legacy Technologies Ltd.

Mounties allege Skinner misrepresented and advertised a “revolutionary fracking product” which resulted in lucrative financial gains.

As a result, numerous victims were enticed to invest in the company, with losses to those investors reported to be over $2.6 million.

Separate voir dire matters, considered a ‘trial within a trial or in-trial hearing,’ are also scheduled to take place ahead of trial from March 1 – 19, 2021.