After a week-long preliminary hearing, a former Sudbury financial adviser accused of stealing more than $6 million from investors has been ordered to stand trial.
Justice Yvon Renaud said there was ample evidence for 302 charges?151 of fraud over $5,000 and 151 of theft over $5,000?to proceed to trial against Pierre Montpellier.
At the beginning of his preliminary hearing, Montpellier elected to have his trial heard before a judge and jury in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Even though Montpellier has spent more than 18 months behind bars since his arrest, it?s not expected his trial will begin until this fall.
Earlier this week in a separate court proceeding, a judge rules Montpellier will be able to hire southern Ontario lawyer Norm Williams and Sudbury lawyer Glenn Sandberg to represent him at trial.
Both lawyers will be paid by the Ontario Legal Aid program.
Montpellier was arrested in England on Sept. 28, 2001 and has been in jail at the Sudbury District Jail since early October of 2001. He was denied bail on two occasions
Montpellier, 40, is charged with stealing $5.7 million from more than 100 investors, mostly from the Greater Sudbury area, between 1995 and when he left Sudbury for England in late 1998.
