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Langley developer’s appeal of extradition denied – faces fraud charge

The Court of Appeal has denied Mark Chandler’s attempt to avoid extradition to California.
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Mark Chandler outside the B.C. Supreme Court during an earlier appearance. (Langley Advance Times files)

A Langley condo developer’s bid to avoid extradition to face fraud charges in the United States was denied by B.C.’s highest court on Monday.

The B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed Mark Chandler’s appeal of an extradition order, as well as an appeal for a judicial review of the Minister of Justice’s decision to allow the extradition.

Chandler faces a charge of fraud in California linked to a failed real estate development there.

Between 2009 and 2011, Chandler was in Los Angeles trying to develop a 21-storey condo tower on Hill Street.

He was charged with fraud in the U.S. following an FBI investigation, and arrested in Canada in 2015, but has been fighting extradition ever since.

Chandler’s defense has been that the U.S. case against him is fundamentally flawed.

The evidence outlined against Chandler included a fake cheque and loan agreement, assurances to two alleged victims that their investments were safe, and claims that Chandler had money tied up in court in Canada, when in fact he was being sued for millions in Canada.

There was also a money trail that showed money borrowed for the L.A. project was transferred to a trust controlled by Chandler. Days later, that trust paid for a $90,000 Hawaiian vacation.

Chandler’s lawyer, Michael Bolton, has characterized the people involved not as victims, but simply as investors or partners in a failed project.

“The record of the case is fundamentally unreliable,” Bolton told the Court of Appeal judges in February.

But lawyer John Gibb-Carsley, a Canadian Department of Justice lawyer, argued that Canadian judges couldn’t draw inferences from the evidence in the U.S. case – that is for an American court to do.

“Guilt and innocence are not at stake,” he said of the extradition proceedings.

A representative of Bolton Law said Chandler will file for leave to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. His lawyers will apply for him to remain free on bail until the country’s top court decides whether or not to hear his case.

Chandler is best known locally for his involvement in the long-delayed Murrayville House condo project. The 91-unit project was delayed multiple times, and was placed in receivership just before construction was completed in 2018. The RCMP announced last year the project was under investigation, and court action between various creditors to the project is ongoing.



Matthew Claxton

About the Author: Matthew Claxton

Raised in Langley, as a journalist today I focus on local politics, crime and homelessness.
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