John Wallace Findlay pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 and admitted he took close to a quarter of a $20 million settlement from the Government of Ontario.

The money that he took was supposed to support residents and businesses affected by the land claims uprising in Caledonia in 2006. Findlay and his wife, lawyer Margaret McCarthy, had already been paid more than $3 million to facilitate the class action lawsuit.

Findlay later asked the courts for an extra $150 000 for continuing to administer the Caledonia fund, and the amount was granted in 2017 even though by that time, he knew he had already spent the money.

Last year Findlay told police that he used the money in his personal power-boat construction company named Trefoil Marine, a name evident on signs at Findlay’s law office in the Port Authority building in 2017.

A police search showed more than $5 million pouring into that business’s accounts between 2012 and 2015. The total loss to the Caledonia compensation fund was more than $1.75 million.

Findlay will be back August 20th to be sentenced for defrauding the Caledonia class action members. Crown and defence will argue over his penalty, but neither lawyer would say what he thinks Findlay deserves.

The maximum for fraud over $5000 is 14 years in prison, and the minimum is two years.