Former Contractor Extradited a Decade After Fleeing to Canada on Snowmobile
The U.S. represents the second-largest construction market in the world, boasting a market share of around 10% and growing. But one Massachusetts contractor decided he wanted a larger piece of the action — and perhaps got more excitement than he bargained for. Now, he’s finally paying the price for his misdoings.
Cyril Gordon Lunn, former owner and operator of CY Realty Corporation, a construction and land development company, filed for bankruptcy back in 2001. While U.S. bankruptcy court statistics estimate that more than 1.5 million people file for bankruptcy each year, Lunn wasn’t about to play by the rules. Before filing, Lunn allegedly transferred nearly $4 million into Canadian safe deposit boxes.
After this was brought to the attention of the U.S. District Attorney’s Office, Lunn testified in a Canadian civil lawsuit in 2004. Lunn promptly disappeared less than a year later after renting a snowmobile in Maine and driving it across the border to Canada, where he remained undetected for around 10 years.
The contractor managed to escape for a good decade up to the Great White North, but in the end, not even a snowmobile could cover his tracks. After all that time on the run, Canadian authorities finally arrested him on an extradition warrant in 2014. Lunn fought his extradition, claiming his wife at the time had stolen the money. A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge found no merit to this claim.
In 2016, Lunn was finally turned over to American authorities. Prosecutors said that Lunn pleaded guilty to concealing assets from bankruptcy creditors and making a false statement under penalty of perjury. Now 68 years old, he will face sentencing — which may include fines of $250,000 and up to five years in prison — in May of 2017.
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