JUDGE CONVICTED OF MONEY-LAUNDERING

MONTREAL (CP) - Justice Robert Flahiff of Quebec Superior Court was
convicted Monday of money-laundering charges.

Flahiff, 51, was charged with laundering $1.7 million between 1989 and 1991
while he was still a practising lawyer. His trial was told how he began
taking satchels of cash to a bank in 1989. Written testimony said Flahiff
was allowed to enter a downtown Bank of Montreal branch after business
hours eight times between February and June 1989.

Each time, Flahiff had thousands of dollars in cash in a sports bag, a
former bank official testified.

She said Flahiff told her the money came from a client who had sold his
business and wanted to send the money elsewhere to avoid a problematic
partner.

The bills were turned into bank drafts that ended up in Swiss banks.

Flahiff, named to the bench in 1993, has been on paid sick leave since
January 1997. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

His defence attorneys said the case against him rested solely on the
testimony of a witness who wasnt credible.

The defence acknowledged that Flahiff transferred money to Switzerland for
client Paul Larue, a cocaine dealer arrested in 1993, but denied that
Flahiff knew the funds were proceeds of crime.

They argued there was no evidence to corroborate Larues claim that Flahiff
knew where the money came from.

Flahiff had wanted his trial stopped, arguing his basic rights had been
compromised by a deal reached between police and Larue.

But Flahiffs argument was turned down by Quebec Court Judge Serge Boisvert,
who said the defence had presented no proof that Larues testimony would
have been any different without the deal.

Larue faced life imprisonment in the United States after he was caught in a
cocaine sting in 1993 in Burlington, Vt.

He got 14 years after agreeing to become a police informant against
Flahiff.