Former N.B. deputy attorney general pleads guilty ahead of fraud trial
Yassin Choukri admitting one charge of theft over $5,000
A former senior provincial government official accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars as a private practice lawyer has pleaded guilty to a single charge of theft just before going on trial.
Yassin Choukri entered a guilty plea to a charge of theft over $5,000 during a hearing in Moncton's Court of King's Bench on Friday.
A judge ruled Wednesday afternoon that media could report the plea following an application by the Times & Transcript newspaper to lift a publication ban.
A 15-day trial was scheduled to start Oct. 16 on eight fraud charges, alleging Choukri stole a total of $486,148 from clients while serving as a private lawyer between 2014 and 2016.
According to notes in the court file, Choukri's lawyer and Crown prosecutors reached a plea deal that will see him admit to one charge "related to the same facts" as contained in the original charges.
Choukri was a law partner of former premier Bernard Lord and served as the chief of staff in Lord's office. He was appointed deputy minister of justice in 2003, but left government after the Progressive Conservatives lost the 2006 election.
He was appointed the public intervener for hearings before the Energy and Utilities Board by the Alward government in 2010.
Choukri was disbarred by the Law Society of New Brunswick after a hearing found he'd misappropriated funds from 10 former clients totalling more than $720,000.
He abandoned his legal practice in 2016 and disappeared.
Choukri was arrested in Ontario in 2020 and brought back to New Brunswick to face the charges.
The law society considered it one of the largest cases of misappropriation of funds by one of its members in decades.
A joint sentencing recommendation from Choukri's defence lawyer and the prosecutor is expected.
The details of what he's admitted have yet to be given. Court file notes indicate an agreed statement of facts will be presented later.
Choukri is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 8.
After he was arrested and charged, Choukri was released on bail and had been living in Riverview.
He was not in the courtroom for Wednesday's hearing on whether to lift the publication ban. He and his lawyer, Gilles Lemieux, appeared by phone.
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News Release
Witness cross-examined during fourth day of hearings before Energy and Utilities Board
16 January 2013FREDERICTON
(GNB) – An expert witness appearing on behalf of the public intervener
was cross-examined by NB Power legal counsel in front of the New
Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board on Jan. 15, the fourth day of
public hearings on the Point Lepreau Generating Station Deferral
Account.
Kurt Strunk, of National Economic Research Associates in New York, was
hired by Public Intervener René Basque to review the calculation of
additional generation costs during the Lepreau refurbishment. Strunk's
report filed as evidence at the hearing claimed that the deferral
account was overstated. NB Power disagrees with this assessment and
stands by its estimation of the size of the deferral account in this
regard.
During cross-examination by NB Power, Strunk was challenged on a number
of areas of his evidence. He was questioned on the accuracy of his
assumptions and the estimates he used to calculate his suggestion that
the deferral account was overstated.
This hearing covers the balance of the deferral account and the
projected operating life of the refurbished generating station. The
board stated in its order of July 18 that matters relating to rates will
be reviewed at a later date. Notwithstanding, NB Power is confident
that the current 10-year forecast of modest two per cent rate increases
is adequate to recover the balance in the deferral account.
NB Power’s original statement and backgrounder on the evidence being presented are available online.
NB Power’s statements on the first three days of the hearing are available online.
The public hearing is scheduled to continue on Wednesday, Jan. 16, with closing arguments by NB Power and the public intervener.