|
|
|
 Editorials | Issues | May 2008 
Brenda Martin's Fraud Case, the Sequel
 Joanna Smith - The Star
go to original
| | American Rebecca Roth, 50, was found guilty two weeks ago of involvement in the same multimillion-dollar online investment scheme that landed Canadian Brenda Martin, 51, in prison near Guadalajara more than two years ago. | | |
As the saga of a Canadian woman jailed in Mexico draws to a close, another woman dealing with a similar nightmare waits her turn away from the spotlight.
American Rebecca Roth, 50, was found guilty two weeks ago of involvement in the same multimillion-dollar online investment scheme that landed Canadian Brenda Martin, 51, in prison near Guadalajara more than two years ago.
On the same day a Mexican judge handed a five-year sentence to Martin, Roth was given nine years without parole and fined 44,812 pesos – about $4,370 – for operating with illicit funds and violating federal laws against organized crime.
Her family friend and lawyer, Andy Millar, said Roth has decided to appeal the verdict but may drop the appeal in order to apply for a transfer to the United States.
Unlike Martin, who was transferred to custody in Canada on Thursday after her prison ordeal garnered widespread publicity, Roth has captured little attention on either side of the border.
"In only telling Brenda's story, they are only telling half the story," said Roger Harrison, who worked with both women briefly in Puerto Vallarta as an employee of convicted fraudster Alyn Richard Waage and who believes that, like him, the women had no knowledge of their ex-boss's crimes.
Waage, 61, is serving a 10-year sentence in a U.S. federal prison for masterminding the infamous Tri-West Investment Club that swindled investors out of nearly $60 million (U.S.).
He has sworn that neither Roth nor Martin were aware of his scheme and told The Canadian Press in March he believes both women are being held as collateral for his having skipped out on $500,000 bail in Mexico.
Roth left her job at an Oregon credit union in 1998 to open a boutique in Puerto Vallarta. She began working for Waage in January 2001, managing his properties, making online travel arrangements, paying bills and handling other administrative duties.
Her sister, Barbara Roth, said that time spent at the computer would come back to haunt her. In 2002, Mexican police investigating Waage asked both women to give declarations. They showed Martin a picture of Roth taken at a Christmas party and asked her to identify her.
"All Brenda said was she was on the computer," Barbara Roth said from her home about an hour south of Guadalajara. "That's what put my sister in prison."
It is not the only evidence the prosecutions presented against her.
Bank records show she covered about $56,000 of Waage's expenses in the four months between his April 2001 arrest and his escape to Costa Rica after his release. Barbara Roth said her sister showed receipts accounting for every expense and had no idea the company was a scam until Waage fled.
Roth and Martin were brought to the Puente Grande women's prison within days of each other and both took part in a prison beauty pageant in exchange for staying outside an extra hour in the evening, but they are far from friends.
"I don't speak to Rebecca Roth. I have no reason to speak to her," Martin said in the telephone call from prison in a March interview with the Toronto Star in which she called Roth "evil" and said she believes she is guilty.
"Brenda has been very cruel to Rebecca, very cruel," Barbara Roth said.
Correspondence between the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara and the office of Oregon Republican Senator Gordon Smith shows consular officials have visited Roth 10 times since her arrest in February 2006. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us