The former CEO of Baffin Fisheries Coalition, Garth Reid, stated that he’s never defrauded the company and is now countersuing BFC for breach of contract and defamation.
Reid’s countersuit comes on the heels of $1.4 million lawsuit that BFC launched against him last month, which alleged that he was building on his Winterton, N.L., and invoicing the work to BFC, and its subsidiary Niqitaq Fisheries, claiming it was for a project in Pond Inlet, Nunavut.
The Baffin Fisheries Coalition is the largest harvester of shrimp in Canada’s North. It’s co-owned by hunters and trappers organizations in five Nunavut communities.
In a statement of defence filed in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, Reid denied the allegations against him and said if any payments were made by BFC for his own property, he didn’t know about it and they were done out of negligence by the company
According to the statement, Reid saw an invoice from the company around the fall of 2016, which contracted work for the Winterton property, on the desk of then CFO for BFC, David Taylor.
Reid goes on to say that if Taylor authorized any payments for the Winterton property, Reid didn’t know about it and it was “either Taylor’s negligence or a scheme on his part to defraud [BFC], either alone or in conjunction with [others],” and that the Reids were ready, willing, and able to pay for the expenses with building the home in Winterton.
Reid is also countersuing the BFC, Niqitaq Fisheries, Methusalah Kunuk, BFC spokesperson Chris Flanagan, and BFC interim CEO Patrick Martin, for nearly $20 million for breach of contract and defamation
The counterclaim says Reid was suspended without pay during a Sept. 21 board meeting, though he couldn’t attend because of a pre-existing family commitment, and he was not told about the vote to suspend him until afterwards.
Read the full story over at the CBC.
