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by Mike Caswell
Lawyers for John Edwards, the only person in jail for the massive CMKM Diamonds Inc. fraud, have asked the judge to release their client. They say that Mr. Edwards is in poor health, both mentally and physically. They also say that they are negotiating a plea agreement that will include a recommendation that he receive a sentence equal to the time he has already spent in custody.
The request comes as part of a case in which prosecutors claim that Mr. Edwards and others, including Saskatchewan's Urban Casavant, ran a two-year pump-and-dump with CMKM that peaked in 2004. Prosecutors say that the men sold hundreds of billions of unregistered shares during the scheme. In all they reaped $60-million in illegal profits, according to the government. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The case has yet to go to trial.
Defence lawyers have been negotiating a plea agreement for Mr. Edwards for at least a year, and it now appears that they have some terms of the deal worked out. According to a motion filed on April 5, 2018, the plea agreement contemplates a sentence of time served, or about seven years. The motion does not spell out any other terms of a plea, such as any monetary penalties or supervised release.
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