THE FACTS MATTER: REACTION TO BMF BLOG POST 20 AUGUST 2018

August 21, 2018

​It was curious to read Bruno Manser Fonds’ blog post, published on 20 August, in response to the news that Sakto has applied for injunctive relief in Switzerland.

BMF claim in their post that Justice Dunphy, of the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, Canada, did not examine the money-laundering allegations, and that he did not make a statement on them.

This claim is false.

---

In 2017, BMF took legal steps against Sakto in Ontario, Canada. They submitted seven volumes of information to the Court, and Executive Director Lukas Straumann was cross-examined. The Superior Court of Justice in Ontario dismissed the case on 5 February 2018. The court decision document is available in full here. 

The Judge made the following relevant key points: 

• BMF filed a large volume of information relating to their allegations, yet “much of that information is of the hearsay variety, arising from media and similar accounts”. 
• BMF’s evidence consists of “suspicions but very little concrete evidence”.
• BMF’s allegations against Sakto of money laundering “depend upon conjecture and suspicion more than evidence”.
• BMF is “looking not only to determine who committed a particular crime and how, they are looking to find if any crime has been committed at all”. 

Importantly, Lukas Straumann’s cross-examination in the Canadian court case proved that his beliefs, assertions, and allegations are not supported by factual evidence, that he is willing to rely on false statements, and that he disregards the rule of law.

The court decision underlines the fact that the court and judge did review BMF’s allegations of money-laundering, and that no government agency has deemed them worthy of investigation – as Lukas Straumann admitted himself below.

6.    1034.         Q.         So, ultimately none of the
7          complaints that you have made to the various
8          authorities have resulted in a prosecution?
9                     Lukas Straumann:  Correct.
- Lukas Straumann’s cross-examination, p 221