A Red Deer lawyer who was temporarily suspended for his role in a Ponzi scheme is being tried later this month on a single charge of assault.
Dana Carlson, 50, goes to trial in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on July 27.
No other details are available on the assault charge, which is related to an incident in 2011.
In relation to the Ponzi scheme, the Law Society of Alberta suspended Carlson for three months earlier this year, effective March 26, and ordered him to pay more than $6,000 for the cost of a hearing.
Carlson admitted to the law society hearing committee that he was guilty of improper conduct, including representing clients in business transactions that he should have known were in breach of securities law, unwittingly enabling a party to achieve an improper purpose and accepting compensation other than legal fees from such a party.
The law society hearing committee also found Carlson guilty of unnecessarily complicating the investigation by destroying evidence and not being immediately forthright in explaining his actions to the law society.
The law society hearing committee reported a number of factors in Carlson’s favour, including an early guilty plea indicating genuine remorse and generating substantial costs savings.
The committee also stated in its report that Carlson did not act in full knowledge or in bad faith and that while he continues to practise litigation law, he no longer operates a solicitor’s practice.
That factor offers significant protection to the public, it says, since the sanctions against him arose from his role in the Ponzi scheme, described in the hearing committee’s report as a prime bank instrument fraud.