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By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

FIVE-YEAR INVESTIGATION

Sylvan Laker sentenced to eight years plus restitution in $2.6M fraud case

Dec 27, 2024 | 10:58 AM

A Sylvan Lake man has been sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $70,000 in restitution after defrauding more than $2.6 million from investors who thought they were contributing to a game-changing fracking product.

Dane Michael Skinner, now 60, was sentenced on one count of fraud over $5,000 and one count of laundering proceeds of crime on Dec. 19, 2024, in Red Deer Court of King’s Bench.

Skinner was found guilty by a jury in May this year, however sentencing was pushed to December due to a — failed — mistrial application by the defendant.

The sentencing decision follows a six-year-long court process that faced multiple delays along the way. Skinner was scheduled for trial twice, in 2021 and 2023, before it was finally carried out from Feb. 20-Mar. 15 and May 6-17, this year.

Skinner was arrested in July 2018 as a result of an investigation by the Blackfalds RCMP and Red Deer Financial Crimes Unit that began in 2013, prompted by a complaint.

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Police reported the offences occurred between December 5, 2007 and February 23, 2013 in the City of Lacombe under the companies 1518869 Alberta Ltd., 1367158 Alberta Ltd. and NE.X.T. Legacy Technologies Ltd.

It’s estimated more than 70 people were victimized by Skinner, who allegedly misrepresented and advertised a “revolutionary fracking product,” to entice investments into his company.