John Felderhof

The Ontario Securities Commission has set aside two months for a hearing into the activities of former Bre-X Minerals Chief Geologist John Bernard Felderhof, who is currently hiding out in the Cayman Islands. Proceedings against Felderhof are due to be held from October 16 to December 22, 2000 at the Provincial Offences Court, Old City Hall, Toronto.

Deloitte & Touche, as trustee of bankrupt Canadian mining firm Bre-X Minerals, has brought a lawsuit in the Cayman Islands against its former chief geologist, John Felderhof; his wife, Ingrid; and a Cayman company they control called Spartacus Corporation.The lawsuit was filed in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands on December 19 and signals the beginning of what will probably be a long legal battle between Felderhof and those who claim he was largely responsible for the massive Bre-X stock fraud that netted him millions of dollars.

Lawyers acting for John Felderhof, the former chief geologist at Bre-X Minerals who by simple logic is either one of the most incompetent geologists in the history of geology or a crook, caused some amusement this week when they claimed he had passed a lie detector test - held in private at a Cayman hotel without a policeman in sight.

Lawyer F. Lee Bailey, best-known for being part of OJ Simpson's ‘Dream Team' of defence attorneys, flew to the Cayman Islands recently and met with an attorney acting for John Felderhof, the disgraced former vice-president of Bre-X mining company.Andreas Kontrimas, a Houston-based lawyer for Felderhof, confirmed that Bailey and Toronto attorney Joe Groia, also a member of the Felderhof defence team, met recently in Cayman.

As one millionaire fugitive was finally forced to leave his paradise island hiding place to face the music back home, another took his place to cause further embarrassment to the Cayman Islands.Swiss businessman Peter Kruger gave up a 16 month battle to escape justice by leaving the Cayman Islands on May 15 to return to Switzerland to face charges of bankruptcy fraud involving nearly US$272 million.But his place in the public eye has already been taken by John Felderhof, the former chief geologist of Bre-X Minerals, a would-be mining firm that defrauded investors of about $4 billion through false claims of gold finds in Indonesia.