A Northern Saskatchewan Cree woman lost her court appeal to avoid extradition to the United States to face wire fraud and money laundering charges.
Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal upheld a May 2020 Attorney General of Canada ruling to send Julliette Belle Carter to Georgia.
The State of Georgia alleges that Carter participated in a large-scale fraud targeting U.S. citizens that defrauded at least 241 victims of at least $633,000.
It’s alleged that between February of 2014 and November of 2017, Carter and her co-accused impersonated United States Internal Revenue Service officials seeking to collect fictitious back taxes, penalties and fines. The callers directed the victims to send wire transfers through Western Union, MoneyGram, or by using other payment methods. The callers often threatened the victims with prosecution or arrest if they didn’t comply with the requests. The telephone fraud scheme targeted United States victims in various states.
Carter fought her extradition on the grounds that her surrender would be unjust and oppressive and violate her rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She based her case on her Indigenous heritage, youth and naïveté. She argued that the Minister didn’t give proper consideration to her Indigenous status and how the United States courts will consider that status.
“I have concluded that Ms. Carter’s application must be dismissed,” ruled Chief Justice Robert G. Richards in concurrence with Madam Justice Lian Schwann and Justice Jeffery Kalmakoff on June 14. “The Minister made no reviewable error in ordering her surrender.
“In my view, nothing in the approach taken by the Minister supports the idea that his decision was unreasonable. There is no suggestion that he misunderstood or misapprehended the governing legal principles. He reviewed the evidence thoroughly and made findings of fact firmly grounded in it. The Minister then considered the facts and reached a defensible conclusion based on them.”
The 24-year-old Cree woman currently lives on Pelican Lake First Nations in northern Saskatchewan.
Court documents show that Carter entered the United States on July 13, 2015, and remained there until August 31, 2015.
Before she entered the United States, her co-conspirator Mohit Sharma allegedly sent her 38 money transfers totaling $3,987. Carter received the transfers in Edmonton, Alberta.
Then, between July 15, 2015, and August 28, 2015, Carter went to Western Union and MoneyGram locations throughout the United States and collected a total of $412,523 USD from approximately 138 individual victims of the alleged fraud scheme via 202 wire transfers. Carter used her Canadian passport as identification to pick up approximately 119 of the wire transfers.
Carter and Mohit Sharma had a joint Bank of America chequing account.
Court documents show that on Oct. 11, 2017, a confidential witness outlined aspects of the scheme and said, “(Carter) must have earned [over] $100,000.00 by now.”
In March 2019, Carter was arrested and she initially consented to her committal for extradition. The Court of Queen’s Bench issued an order for committal in August of 2019. In September of 2019, a Gladue report was ordered, which was made available to Canada’s Minister of Justice.
The Gladue Report indicated Carter’s parents attended day school. Carter’s parents moved to Edmonton before she was born but throughout her childhood they moved back and forth between Edmonton and Pelican Lake, Sask.
Carter was homeschooled for five grades and she didn’t finish high school. She never had full or part-time employment and the Gladue Report writer said she appeared to be “naïve of the world around her.” Her father described her as “easily persuaded” and as someone who “doesn’t speak up for herself.”
Carter was raised in a lifestyle sheltered from the outside world by virtue of the family’s adherence to the strict rules of the church they belonged. Carter said they never attended any First Nation ceremonies.
The fact that Carter can’t be prosecuted in Canada for her alleged part in the fraud influenced the Justice Minister’s decision to extradite her, according to court documents.
United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) confirmed that Indigenous status is considered at sentencing and during any imprisonment, court documents reveal.
The USDOJ also advised that Carter’s status as a First Nations woman in the Pelican Lake First Nation and the history of the mistreatment of Indigenous communities may be considered as factors contributing to criminal behaviour and potentially as mitigating factors in sentencing.
Carter’s Indigenous heritage could result in a reduction of her sentence but there was no evidence the United States court would be required to take into account Carter’s Indigenous heritage as a mitigating factor when sentencing.
Chief Justice Richards said courts are required to take Gladue factors into consideration when sentencing but they aren’t an automatic sentence discount.
