Former deputy Attorney General for New Brunswick, Yassin Choukri was recently given a three-year sentence of prison time for stealing over CA$480,000 from his law firm. The 56-year-old pleaded guilty to embezzling money from his clients while working as a private lawyer in Fredericton between 2014 and 2016, which was used to fuel his gambling addiction.
A while back Mr. Choukri was a law partner of former premier Bernard Lord and served as the Chief of Staff in Lord’s office before becoming deputy Attorney General in 2003. He left the position after Lord lost the elections in 2006. Then in 2010, the David Alward government signed him as the public intervener for hearings before the Energy and Utilities Board.
Pleading Guilty in Court
Court of King’s Bench Justice Robert Dysart gave the sentence recommended by the Crown prosecutor and Mr. Choukri’s defence lawyer. Justice Dysart said that including the guilty plea, and recognizing that courts are required to accept a joint recommendation, he is pleased with the joint recommendation in the case and it is reasonable and in the public interest.
Crown prosecutor Vicky Doucette shared she was not surprised with the decision to accept the sentencing recommendation and said the former deputy AG was responsible for holding client funds in a trust account. She added that the defendant would gradually withdraw some of the money in installments of several thousand dollars to repay his credit card obligations.
But as his gambling addiction got worse, Mr. Choukri was cautioned by his ban that his trust account was at risk. To compensate for the shortfall, he borrowed the maximum amount he could and put it into his trust account. However, it was not enough. As matters got worse, on September 29, 2016, he fled Fredericton without giving notice to his clients.
Later he was found in Mississauga, Ontario, where he joined a program for people dealing with gambling addiction. He was taken into custody and sent back to New Brunswick in 2020, where he was charged and released on bail. This week, more than seven years after escaping the province, he was escorted to prison to serve his sentence.
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In October 2023, the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario ruled that a former accountant was guilty of defrauding a North Bay employer of over CA$100,000. It was reported that from 2002 to 2012, Sharon Elliot worked as a bookkeeper for Steele Industrial Supplier Inc. and she was caught taking money from the company to fuel her gambling problem and gambling in Casino Rama.
Another gambling-related case includes a card dealer from Pickering Casino Resort who was discovered to have been colluding with patrons. Police revealed that twenty-four-year-old Toronto resident Sandeep Sogi was charged with criminal breach of trust. However, that is now all as he also stacked four counts of cheat at play and four counts of fraud over CA$5,000
Source: Magee, Shane “Former deputy attorney general in N.B. sent to prison for 3 years for theft of $481,000” CBC News, December 19, 2023
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