The Hon. Mr. Justice Adrian Saunders, a native of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill) in 1975 and a Legal Education Certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad & Tobago in 1977. He began his legal career as a barrister and solicitor in private practice in his home country.
In 1990, he established the firm of Saunders & Huggins before being invited to join the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) High Court Bench in 1996. On 1st May 2003, Mr. Justice Saunders was appointed to the ECSC’s Court of Appeal and served as acting Chief Justice between 2004 and 2005. While at the ECSC, Mr. Justice Saunders developed a passion for and was deeply involved in various judicial reform efforts. These included the introduction of court-connected mediation in the Eastern Caribbean and the development of that Court’s first Judicial Code of Ethics.
He also served as Chairman of the ECSC’s Judicial Education Institute from 2001 to 2004. His work in judicial education has continued with the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute (CJEI). He earned a Fellowship of the CJEI in 1998 and, he is currently and has been for several years the Course Director of The CJEI’s Intensive Study Programme. He is also one of the Institute’s Directors.
In 2005, Mr. Justice Saunders was among the first cohort of judges to join the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) bench. Mr. Justice Saunders has contributed greatly to regional judicial outreach and judicial education efforts. He is a founding member of the Caribbean Association of Judicial Officers (CAJO) and has served as the organization’s Chairman since its inception in 2009.
Due to his active engagement in advancing judicial integrity, Mr. Justice Saunders has recently been appointed to serve on the Advisory Board of the Global Judicial Integrity Network by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration.
Mr. Justice Saunders’ interests also extend to the area of court administration where he has adopted an active role in the CCJ’s public education and other strategic projects. He led the development of the Court’s first Strategic Plan in 2012 and currently chairs the ongoing project to develop and execute the Strategic Plan for 2019-2024.
Mr. Justice Saunders has written many legal articles and publications and is a Consulting Editor of The Caribbean Civil Court Practice and a co-author of Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law. He serves as Chairman of the Caribbean Association of Judicial Officers which, in collaboration with UN Women, played a leading role in developing and promoting the adoption of Gender Sensitive Protocols for Judicial Officers for various Caribbean judiciaries. He also lectures part time at The UWI, St Augustine Faculty of Law on Constitutional Law.
At its 29th Intersessional Meeting in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in February 2018, the Caribbean Community Heads of Government agreed to the recommendation of the Regional and Judicial Legal Services Commission (RJLSC) that the Honourable Mr. Justice Adrian Saunders be appointed President of the Caribbean Court of Justice. He became President of the Caribbean Court of Justice on 4 July 2018.
The Honourable Mr. Justice Saunders is married to Marilyn née Joslyn and the couple has two sons, Yuri and Yanek.
Robert John Reed, Lord Reed of Allermuir took up appointment as President of the Supreme Court on 13 January 2020, succeeding Lady Hale of Richmond. Upon this appointment, Lord Reed became a life peer.
Prior to his appointment as President, Lord Reed previously served as Deputy President of the Supreme Court from 7 June 2018 and was originally appointed as a Justice on 6 February 2012. He studied law at Edinburgh University and undertook doctoral research in law at the University of Oxford. He qualified as an advocate in Scotland and as a barrister in England. He practised at the Scottish Bar in a wide range of civil cases, and also prosecuted serious crime.
He served as a senior judge in Scotland for 13 years. From 2008 to 2012 a member of the Inner House of the Court of Session, and from 1998 to 2008 a member of the Outer House of the Court of Session, where he was the Principal Commercial Judge. As well as sitting on the Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, he is also a member of the panel of ad hoc judges of the European Court of Human Rights. Lord Reed is also the High Steward of Oxford University.
In 1975, she graduated as Valedictorian of the British Virgin Islands High School when she was 17 and subsequently receiving her Bachelor of Laws degree with honours in 1976.
In 1981, Dame Janice was called to the Bar of the Territory of the Virgin Islands, becoming one of the first two women to be admitted to the Bar on the same day. She has served as the Registrar of the Supreme Court, Registrar of Companies and the Admiralty Marshall, Supervisor of Elections, Magistrate, and additional Magistrate.
Her journey continued from being appointed as a Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in 2003 to her elevation to the Court of Appeal in 2008 and then her appointment as Chief Justice in 2012. She was the first female and longest serving Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
Her contributions to the judiciary were further recognised in May 2013 when she was awarded the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Subsequent to her retirement in 2024, His Majesty the King has found her worthy of elevation as a member to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
His Lordship, the Hon. Justice Eddy Ventose a national of Saint Lucia, was born in Fort-de-France, Martinique. He received all his early education in Saint Lucia at the Morne-Du-Don Primary School, the Entrepot Secondary School and the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. Justice Ventose obtained an LL.B. (first class honours) from the University of the West Indies in 1999, an LL.M. (first class honours) from the University of Cambridge in 2000 and a D.Phil. in intellectual property law from the University of Oxford in 2005. Justice Ventose received the Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice at the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice in 2004 and the Legal Education Certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School in 2008.
Justice Ventose commenced his legal career in 2004 as a trainee solicitor at Slaughter and May, London, United Kingdom, qualifying as a solicitor of England and Wales in 2006. Justice Ventose was called to the Bar of Saint Lucia in 2007 and was subsequently admitted to the Bar of other Commonwealth Caribbean States.
In 2006, Justice Ventose started his academic career at the Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, as a Lecturer in Law and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2011 and to Professor of Law in 2012. Justice Ventose has over 70 publications and 3 books, including Commonwealth Caribbean Administrative Law published in 2012. Justice Ventose served in various administrative capacities at the University of the West Indies, including Deputy Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Law, and as Director for Graduate Studies and Research, Cave Hill Campus.
In November and December 2016, Justice Ventose acted as a Master of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court assigned to Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda and the Territory of the Virgin Islands. In September 2018, Justice Ventose was appointed as a High Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and was assigned to Saint Christopher and Nevis. Justice Ventose served in the civil division of the Saint Christopher Circuit until 2020. Justice Ventose served as Co-Chair of the Civil Procedures Rules Review Committee from 2019-2023. Between May to December 2023, Justice Ventose held several acting appointments as Justice of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
In January 2024, Justice Ventose was appointed as a Justice of Appeal, Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and was also appointed as Chairman of the Judicial Education Institute.
Currently, Arvind Lal serves as an Associate General Counsel/Director at Chainalysis’s Global Investigations, Litigation and Governance in-house legal team and the Litigation and Trial Support Program. Mr. Lal advises the company on matters relating to criminal investigations, civil and criminal litigation, compliance, corporate compliance, and regulatory matters. Prior to joining Chainalysis, Mr. Lal was the Chief of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section (AFMLS) at the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. During his time as Chief, Mr. Lal pioneered many interesting and novel uses of forfeiture as a disruption tool and a prosecution tool. Additionally, under Mr. Lal’s supervision, the AFMLS section oversaw some of the biggest cryptocurrency prosecutions in the country, if not the world. Mr. Lal also served as the Deputy Chief of the Capitol Siege Section, and oversaw the prosecution of countless defendants involved in the incidents that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2020. Notable publicly available cases include:
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Payza (money service business operating in the United States without the requisite licenses)
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Welcome to Video (child pornography case resulting in 300+ arrests globally and the rescue of 20+ children);
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Bitcoin Fog (cryptocurrency mixer);
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1Broker (the first crypto securities fraud investigation)
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One Gold Ring et al. (civil forfeiture complaint against ISIS re looted antiquities);
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Okorov (Indictment of Russian and Syrian businessmen for transporting jet fuel to Syria in violation of U.S. sanctions).
Mr. Lal has taught innumerable classes in Money Laundering, Civil and Criminal Forfeiture, Investigating Terrorism Financing, investigating Sanctions Violations, and federal sentencing guidelines to prosecutors all over the United States and more than 20 countries.
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Chambers UK says of Paul Garlick K.C.: Sources enthuse about Garlick's client care and his deep knowledge of extradition proceedings "He is one of the top-rank K.C.s when it comes to extradition and human rights."
Paul Garlick K.C.’s practice covers the areas of commercial crime and financial regulatory work, including acting for the CPS, the SFO and the Chartered Institute of Accountants, Health and Safety and other serious crime (for both the prosecution and the defence). He has considerable experience in leading case teams, both in the criminal and regulatory fields. He has particular expertise in corporate liability for criminal offences and international and crossborder crime.
In 1992, he was appointed by the Attorney General as Standing Counsel to HM Customs and Excise. Since then, he has advised and conducted cases on behalf of the prosecution and the defence in the Crown Court, Administrative Court and Court of Appeal in cases involving MTIC Frauds, money laundering, corruption and European criminal law.
Since 2006 Paul Garlick QC has been an International Expert to the International Academy of Environmental Sciences, advising the Directive Council on matters of international environmental law. Since taking silk in 1996, Paul has advised in several cases involving allegations against companies of dumping environmentally toxic waste. Recently, Paul successfully defended a leading company in the West Country in a prosecution involving an allegation of dumping prime topsoil in connection with the development of a superstore for a nationally known supermarket company. He has also recently been involved in advising in relation to the international environmental law aspects of an allegation of dumping toxic petrochemicals and radioactive waste.
Corporate Manslaughter and Health and Safety issues are an area in which he enjoys a fastgrowing reputation. He regularly advises companies and individuals in cases involving fatalities and serious accidents in the workplace. He is a specialist in extradition, where he has been highly commended by Chambers Directory. He has recently been involved in a number of high-profile extradition cases where he represented former directors of the Russian "UKOS" oil company. In addition, he also undertakes regulatory and disciplinary work, particularly in the financial services sector. He was leading counsel on behalf of the Executive Counsel of the Accountants' Joint Disciplinary Scheme (JDS) in the recent successful prosecution of KPMG for disciplinary offences in connection with its audit of the collapsed Independent Insurance Group.
His Lordship Mr. Justice Dale Staple is a husband & father of one child. He is a judicial officer in Jamaica. Justice Staple was called to the bar in November of 2006 and practiced extensively at the private bar in both criminal and civil litigation at all levels of the judicial system in Jamaica for 7 years. Justice Staple ascended to the bench as a Resident Magistrate (now Judge of the Parish Court) on the 4th February 2014. In April of 2018, he was appointed to Act as Senior Judge of the Parish Court for Clarendon and was appointed to that post in January of 2020. Justice Staple was appointed a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Jamaica in January of 2024.
In his time as a judicial officer, Justice Staple has served on several committees and boards including the inaugural Supreme Court Bench Book editorial committee, the Balanced Scorecard Champions Committee (the strategic planning committee for the Judiciary of Jamaica), the implementation committee for Differentiated Case Management in the Parish Courts and the Rules Committee of the Parish Courts. Whilst a member of the Rules Committee, he actively participated in the drafting of the Proceeds of Crime Act Rules for the Parish Courts.
As a Judge of the Parish Court, Justice Staple has adjudicated several matters under the Proceeds of Crime Act including one matter which proceeded to the Privy Council – Powell v Spence [2021] UKPC 5.
Justice Staple was part of the Editorial Committee for the Caribbean Civil Practice and Procedure practitioner’s text; he is also an immediate part participant in the Supreme Court Civil Division Backlog reduction project and is currently involved in a pilot project for the implementation of a docket system in the Supreme Court Civil Division.
His Lordship Justice Brian Cottle is a graduate of the University of the West Indies and the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School. After a few years in private legal practice in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago where he was first admitted to the bar, Brian Cottle joined the public legal service in the Eastern Caribbean.
Mr. Justice Cottle first served in St Vincent and the Grenadines in many positions, including Magistrate, Registrar of the High Court and Director of Public Prosecutions. He then served as Attorney General of Montserrat and later Deputy Solicitor General of Antigua and Barbuda. Justice Cottle joined the bench of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in 2002 and served unbroken until 2024, making him one of the longest serving judicial officers to have ever graced the court. During his time in office he has presided in every state and territory served by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. He has functioned both in the criminal and civil jurisdictions of the court.
Justice Cottle now devotes his time to developing the sport of chess in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The International Chess Federation FIDE has awarded him the titles of National Arbiter and Candidate Master in chess. He represents St Vincent at the World Chess Olympiads, the next edition of which takes place in Budapest, Hungary later in September 2024. He is the husband of Maxine.
His Lordship, the Hon. Justice Mario Michel was born in St. Lucia on 19th January, 1960. He received his early education at the RC Boys’ Infant and Primary Schools, St. Mary’s College and the St. Lucia ‘A’ Level College. In 1978 he entered the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies in Barbados where he studied History and Economics for one year before entering the Faculty of Law of the University in 1979. He graduated from the University in 1982 with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (with honours) and then moved to the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad, from where he graduated in 1984 with a Legal Education Certificate (L.E.C.).
Upon graduation from Law School in 1984, Mr. Michel returned to St. Lucia and commenced private practice as a lawyer. In 1990 he established the law firm of Michel & Company, which he headed until 1997 when he discontinued his legal practice to serve in government. In January 2007, upon his retirement from active politics after a promised decade of service in that arena, he resumed private practice as a lawyer.
As a student – whether in St. Lucia, Barbados or Trinidad – Mr. Michel had been an active student leader and participated in numerous regional and international youth and student meetings in the Caribbean and in Europe. Upon his return to St. Lucia after completing his legal education, Mr. Michel became engaged in the local youth movement. He was instrumental in the formation in April 1985 of the St. Lucia National Youth Council and became its first president. He served as president of the Council from its inception, through its struggle for governmental recognition, to its full establishment as a reputable non-governmental organisation in St. Lucia. He exited the leadership of the National Youth Council in April 1989 after serving two terms as president.
In 1991 Mr. Michel joined with other university graduates in St. Lucia to revive the St. Lucia Guild of Graduates (now transformed into the UWI Alumni Association of St. Lucia) and served as president of the Guild from 1992 to 1994. He exited the leadership of the Guild of Graduates in 1994 after serving two terms as president.
In August 1995, Mr. Michel was elected as the youngest-ever president of the St. Lucia Bar Association and had commenced a process of revitalizing this long–established organisation. After an active year as Bar Association President, he demitted the presidency of the Association in August 1996 upon his nomination and endorsement as an election candidate of the St. Lucia Labour Party and his election as its deputy leader.
In May 1997, Mr. Michel was elected as the Parliamentary Representative of Gros Islet and was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Human Resource Development, Youth and Sports of St. Luca. In December 2001 he was re-elected as the Parliamentary Representative of Gros Islet and re-appointed Minister for Education, Human Resource Development, Youth and Sports and served in these capacities until his retirement from active politics. Indeed, it was near historic in the politics of the Caribbean when, having announced at his launching as a candidate for elective office in August 1996 that he would render a decade of service in the political arena, he declined to contest the general election of December 2006 and formally retired from political office at the height of his personal popularity, after having accomplished his signature projects of the National Football and Track and Field Stadium, the Beausejour Cricket Ground, Universal Secondary Education and the abolition of the shift system which had been in place for over 25 years at the largest primary school in St Lucia at the time.
In January 2007, Mr. Michel re-entered private practice as a lawyer and re-established the law firm of Michel & Company. In February 2009, however, he responded to a call to service in the judicial sphere and served as an acting judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court from 1st February to 31st August, 2009 assigned first to Anguilla and then to Grenada.
On 1st September, 2009 Mr. Michel was appointed as a judge of the High Court of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and assigned to the territory of Antigua and Barbuda, where he served until September 2012 when he was elevated to the Court of Appeal.
Despite his exit from public life outside of his judicial office, Mr Michel has delivered feature addresses at school graduations and other such functions and has also been called upon to share his experience and expertise regionally and internationally. In October 2015 he was the keynote speaker at a Caribbean Youth Development Conference hosted by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at the Mona Camps of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. In December 2015 he was a member of a UN Advisory Panel which met at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to discuss and approve the Regnal Human Development Report for Latin America and the Caribbean for inclusion in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) for 2015 to 2030. In August 2017 he was a feature speaker at the 9th Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting in Uganda.
His Lordship the Honourable Mario Michel is married and is the father of two children, Marie-Grace and Fidel Michel.
Justice Kathy Ann Waterman Latchoo was called to the Bar in 1998 in Trinidad and Tobago and three years later became a prosecutor, rising to the rank of Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions.
She retired from that post in 2014 to become a judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, where she served in St Vincent and the Grenadines as the criminal bench judge. In June 2017, she returned home to Trinidad and Tobago to serve as a High Court judge in the criminal division.
Justice Latchoo also holds a Master of Science degree in Legal and Forensic Psychology from the University of Leicester, UK. She is a Fellow of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, based in Halifax, Canada.
Before becoming an attorney-at-law, Justice Latchoo was a newspaper journalist for 15 years.
Glen E. Harloff is Senior Managing Director and Practice Leader of Financial Investigation Services in Latin America and the Caribbean. He has extensive experience in the prevention, detection and investigation of fraud relating to such areas as insolvency/bankruptcy, secret commissions, internal investigations, FCPA, UK Bribery Act, and the Brazil Anti-Corruption Law. Glen has traced and secured assets relating to the proceeds of crime/money laundering, throughout North America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and Africa. He has testified in civil and criminal proceedings and lectured on fraud related matters to businesses, law firms, and other professional groups. Glen is a Chartered Professional Accountant (“CPA-CGA”) and a founding member and past President of the Canadian Association of Certified Forensic Investigators (“CFI”). Prior to joining Kroll, Glen was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (“RCMP”), Toronto Commercial Crime Section, where he conducted complex national and international white-collar crime investigations. While with the RCMP, he was on secondment to a major Canadian Bank’s Corporate Audit Treasury Group, where he conducted audits of all aspects of domestic and international banking operations, including securities trading, foreign exchange, wire transfers, credit card operations, and loan administration. He was Vice-President of Forensic Investigations for Big 4 firm from 1996 – 2001 and Principal with a boutique specializing in forensic accounting and investigations from 2001 – 2007.
Professional Experience:
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Offshore Bank, Grenada – A licensed Grenada offshore bank, with reported assets of US $65 billion, was placed into liquidation. Individuals from Canada, UK, USA and other countries had placed funds on deposit with the bank based on advertised annual returns of 100% and the deposits being fully guaranteed. Glen worked with and on behalf of the Receiver to conduct the forensic investigation that identified capital, assets, and investments of the bank were misrepresented and that the bank was operating aa a Ponzi scheme. A cash flow analysis identified assets in the Caribbean, the USA, and Africa, some of which were subsequently seized and forfeited.
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Receivership Grenada – Appointed as Receiver by a domestic bank in Grenada pursuant to an Indenture of the Bank. Responsible for managing the ongoing business, and to realize on the assets of the business plus a second business operation (inactive) plus a residential property. Maintenance and repairs were undertaken, as required, and the properties were subsequently sold, in order to realize on the Bank’s Indenture.
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Domestic Bank, Jamaica - Working with and on behalf of the Receiver, managed and conducted a six-month investigation of the bank and four associated companies that became insolvent. The investigation identified misrepresentations in the audited financial statements, loans to related companies disguised as offshore bank investments, loan portfolio irregularities, and other improper activity. Diverted funds were traced to the Bahamas and the USA. Glen testified in Jamaican civil proceedings resulting in the recovery of a major vacation resort, which had been improperly transferred from the bank, the recovery of additional assets, and a US $54 million judgment against the bank’s Chairman and others for improperly diverting assets and negligence in the operations of the bank.
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Capital Bank International Limited (In Receivership), Grenada – Since February 2008, Glen has assisted the Receiver in placing Capital Bank in receivership, conducting a thorough review of the financial records of the bank, and reporting to the Court. This has included overseeing the administration and operations of the bank, including the collection on loans, working with legal counsel in realizing on the assets of the Bank through mortgage foreclosure and the subsequent sale of properties.
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Brazil Infrastructure Investigation –The Lava Jato corruption probe in Brazil lead to a plea agreement that ultimately implied allegations of corruption at Eletrobras, the state-owned power operations. Eletrobras commissioned an independent committee to investigate the allegations. Kroll was engaged to conduct a financial investigation of the construction of one nuclear and eight hydroelectric projects, with the objective to identifying potential corruption at Eletrobras and its subsidiaries and, primarily, to quantify financial losses to the company due to corruption. Eletrobras was subject to FCPA and Brazil Corruption Act Sanctions, including SEC delisting. After a three-year investigation, with the assistance of Kroll, the company was successful in avoiding regulatory fines in Brazil and the US DOJ, and a minimal fine by the SEC.
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Mining Company, Colombia – Engaged by legal counsel representing the Special Committee, Board of Directors, of a publicly traded mining company with operations in Colombia. The investigation related to allegations of conflict of interest in the purchase and sale of company assets, kick-backs, misappropriation of funds, and expense irregularities. The investigation included the review of financial records, the review of contracts, the investigation of offshore entities, and other investigative steps. Civil proceedings were commenced against the company’s former management and resulted in a settlement early in the proceedings.
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Mining Company, Mexico – Conducted a forensic review of a publicly traded mining company regarding allegations of related party transactions, conflicts of interest, secret commissions, and expense irregularities. The investigation resulted in the identification of significant irregularities, the identification of fraudulent vendors, and other irregularities. Our recommendations result in the rewriting of procurement policies & procedures.
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Caribbean Infrastructure Program – Engaged by the Government in the Caribbean to review the program funded with a $400 million loan from Asia. Reviewed the procedures for selecting and costing of the construction projects, actual costs, sub-contractors’ selection procedures, payment, approval process etc. We also verified all loan drawdowns and approvals, interest, and other payments. Our review identified irregularities in the selection of projects and conflicts of interest. Subsequently made recommendations to improve the administration and monitoring of future projects.
Education, Certifications & Recognitions:
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Bachelor of Science – University of Guelph
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Chartered Professional Accountant (“CPA-CGA”)
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Canadian Association of Certified Forensic Investigators (“CFI”
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