No hearing scheduled for day parole as April deadline passed
By Kevin Woodhouse
www.thesuburban.com
When fraudulent businessman Earl Jones was sentenced 11 years for theft and fraud charges in February 2010, the thought of him getting out seemed like a long way away for those 100-plus victims he defrauded, who were mostly widowed senior citizens. But Jones will be eligible for parole from jail to a halfway house this coming September. By that date, he will have served one-third of his sentence, with the remaining half to be completed in a halfway-house setting, likely in Montreal.
And while April 15th marked the date that Jones was eligible for his day parole hearing, “no parole hearing has been scheduled with the National Parole Board (NPB) to allow this to happen. So, in effect, he remains in full custody in federal prison,” explained Earl Jones Victims Committee (EJVC) member Joey Davis whose mother was defrauded by Jones.
“Jones has to be present for the hearing in September and victims who register with the NPB can also attend,” Davis told The Suburban.
Davis also noted that Jones’ wife has yet to file divorce proceedings and is a regular visitor to her incarcerated husband on weekends. “This does raise a cloud of suspicion as to whether Jones has hidden away any money,” said Davis.
To date, none of the victims have received a settlement cheque from the RBC who settled with the victims for $17 million although for at least 40 of the victims, they will never get any compensation from the bank as their claims were rejected. Davis’ mother was one of the refused claimants because, according to her son, “due to the long term nature of the crime and the fact that she was giving a monthly, albeit fraudulent, interest and also drawing down on the investment.”
After the four and a half million in legal fees, the $12.5 million will be split amongst eligible victims which will be a net percentage of the award. “This was a last hope to get any of the money they lost from Jones back and it seems only the lawyers will do well in this case,” aid Davis.
The victims will try to move on with their lives and try to pick up the pieces, family by family,” said Davis. “But the victims were left out in the cold after being led down a path of hope in terms of getting their investment back.”
Kevin Curran, Earl Jones Victims Committee member and claims administrator in the RBC settlement, did not get back to The Suburban as of press time.
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