In Bollefer’s office in 2006, the lawyer explained to Pace Lindsay how his plan would work and presented her with a complex flowchart: “At no time did he explain to me that there was any risk in following his advice,” she said in an affidavit filed as part of her lawsuit against Bollefer and his firm. Eight years after retiring, Pace Lindsay had to wind down the trust. She had accumulated roughly $1 million in her athletic trust, where she was required to deposit all her prize money and endorsement fees in order to maintain her status as an amateur athlete. “He spoke confidently about the tax planning he was doing for his other clients, including athletes,” Pace Lindsay later described in court documents.Īn accomplished alpine skier, Pace Lindsay competed in three Olympics, was once ranked number one downhill skier in the world and, in 1993, won the Canadian Press’ Bobbie Rosenfeld Award for being Canada’s female athlete of the year.
#Donovan bailey professional
He seemed professional and highly capable. Sitting in a downtown Toronto law office in 2006, Kate Pace Lindsay was impressed by Bollefer. Using court records from an Ontario lawsuit, tax appeals and bankruptcy court filings, the Star has reconstructed the inside story of this international tax shelter drama that was still playing out in a Canadian courtroom in 2018. “As a lawyer, I am bound by the obligations of maintaining solicitor-client confidentiality so that I may not disclose or discuss any client matters,” he said.īollefer’s firm, Aird & Berlis, also refused to comment. The scheme allowed clients to shuttle millions of dollars to offshore trusts using a colourful cast of characters, including a Bahamas-based businessman later accused of stealing $20 million, and his former partner, who was shot in the head outside his Nassau office.īollefer, who denied in court filings that his handling of funds in a similar offshore plan for another client was negligent, would not discuss Bailey’s or other clients’ cases. The plan’s architect was Stuart Bollefer, a Bay Street tax lawyer with the firm Aird & Berlis whose corporate bio describes him as “a natural problem solver” who “has the ability to find innovative resolutions to his clients’ tax issues.”īollefer promoted the tax strategy to other clients, too, including at least one other prominent Olympic athlete, a world-champion skier. Once the world’s fastest man, Bailey would soon be left destitute.
The plan was actually a tax cheat scheme, the government would later find, in which the charitable donation was a masquerade to escape paying taxes. The funds had been shielded from taxes in an athletic trust, but once retired Bailey had to wind down the trust and wanted to minimize the Canada Revenue Agency’s cut of his earnings.Īccording to the tax plan, Bailey’s donation would flow through a complicated web of transactions before the bulk of the money would make its way back to the sprinter, tax free, through an offshore trust.
It was part of a tax plan the Olympic gold medalist used to protect the sponsorship fees and prize money he had built up over years of competitive sprinting.
Donovan Bailey gave the charity $3.75 million assured that one day a good chunk of the money would end up back in his pocket.
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