Courts Still Trying to Get Guardian's Tanner Back to Canada

 

Active in business with Commercial Money Center of Las Vegas, Nevada, as a principal of Guardian Financial,  Blaine Tanner quest for reinstatement of a pardon reportedly continues.  It involves a pardon issued to him by the Canadian government for fraud, assault, including breaking and entry. . The Canadian government revoked that pardon in August 2000 because Mr. Tanner failed to disclose on his pardon application a 1993 conviction for tax evasion, according to court records.

 

Reportedly a ruling has not been issued to date.

 

"Although I was aware that I had been convicted on Sept. 24, 1993, and sentenced on March 1, 1994, under the Income Tax Act, I did not understand that to be a criminal conviction for which a pardon applied, “ he stated in an affidavit as part of his appear."

 

He is a resident of the United States and married to a U.S. citizen, well known

defense attorney Ellen Simon. The outcome of the appeal in Canada could determine whether Mr. Tanner is allowed to remain in this country.

 

Guardian Capital, in which he is a major principal, is allegedly in default on about $39.5 million in loans issued by First Merit Bank, Sky Bank, Second National Bank of Warren, Provident Bank, Bank One and Huntington National Bank, according to 10 judgments filed in 2002.

 

 Guardian Financial Group LLC and principal shareholder Blaine Tanner are reportedly  in court battles involving both lenders, two insurance companies and another company that invests in those leases.  Several of these leases are reportedly also involved with Commercial Money Center and its legal disputes

in bankruptcy and other courts, including investigations by the FBI.

 

CMC leases went to companies or individuals with poor credit who were willing to pay high interest rates. According to the news report, the company pooled the leases and sold the income stream to investors, typically banks and other financial institutions, then bought insurance policies or surety bonds to pay investors if lessees didn't make payments.

 

In the final months, it is reported CMC was funding leases that were expected

to fail.  Former employees have been cooperating with attorneys for the insurance

companies, we are told.

 

Investors and insurance companies now dispute responsibility for the unpaid leases in the CMC matter, who’s parent corporations have all filed Chapter 7. The insurers question the legitimacy of the leases, saying they were set up with shell companies or individuals whose signatures were forged. The insurance and bonding companies are just trying to get out of paying claims on the defaulted leases.  Netbank has a $80 million claim and several banks have over another

$80 billion claim, and it is expected it could go to $250 million. Provisions

of the bond refer to fraud and technical deception are also in the counter claims.

 

It is reported the FBI is investigating the matter, especially regarding claims

for leases where equipment never existed and/or lessees never existed. Several

officers of the various corporations in bankruptcy are back in the equipment leasing business. It is not an uncommon practice in the leasing industry.

Leasing associations also accept them as members.  They state to Leasing

News it would be a “restraint of trade” not to accept them.

 

In the Guardian Financial matter, Court documents filed in Cleveland, Ohio note that Guardian has acknowledged it defaulted on the $10.5 million balance of a loan from Sky Bank of Toledo. It is also reported that its subsidiary, Guardian Capital V LLC, also defaulted on the $3.6 million balance of a loan from Second National Bank of Warren. Reportedly a second subsidiary, Guardian Capital XVIII LLC, defaulted on a Sky Bank loan with a $4.8 million balance.

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Illinois Union Insurance Co. of Philadelphia and RLI Insurance Corp. of Peoria, Ill., insured Guardian’s investments in the equipment leases, it is alleged in the lawsuit filed by Sky Bank and Second National.

 

None of the parties were available for a comment.

 

It is noted that Blaine Turner, was convicted on fraud charges in his native Canada in 1975 and has another conviction for evading more than $360,000 in income tax in 1994. A Canadian court also ordered him in the year 2000 to pay $740,000 in back child support owed to a former wife; however, he claims he is no longer

a resident of Canada..