Sentencing for Alena Pastuch, convicted of fraud in 2019, delayed again

The sentencing of Alena Pastuch, who was convicted of defrauding investors of $5.5 million in 2019, has been moved back after she was given a new court-appointed lawyer on Tuesday.

Pastuch, who is not in custody, attended the Tuesday hearing remotely. She was joined by her pro-bono lawyer, Christina Skibinsky.

Crown prosecutor Dana Brûlé opposed the appointment at the hearing, but Justice Catherine Dawson said Brûlé had insufficient evidence to block it. 

The development continues a years-long legal saga that began when Pastuch was convicted in 2019 of defrauding about 80 investors of more than $5 million. 

In the scheme, which dated back to 2006, Pastuch encouraged people to invest in child-protection software, but used the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle. 

At the 2019 conviction, Pastuch was given a seven-year prison sentence and ordered to pay back her investors within 12 years, or face additional prison time.

Pastuch hired and fired multiple lawyers in the lead up to the 2019 trial, including a legal-aid and a court appointed-lawyer. After she fired her lawyer days before that trial was set to begin the court declined to appoint her a third one, leaving her to represent herself, and she was convicted. 

Pastuch successfully appealed the conviction and was granted a new trial in 2022 when a judge ruled that her lack of legal representation was unfair.

Pastuch subsequently entered a plea deal that would lower her prison term to 3½ years.

Formal sentencing for that deal was set for March 10, 2025, but as the hearing began Dawson was informed that Pastuch had fired her longtime defence lawyer three days earlier.

That pushed the sentencing hearing to April 22, when Dawson agreed to another court-appointed lawyer who will submit another court application that will be discussed on June 9.