Ethics Newsline®

Special to Newsline from Canadian correspondent Errol P. Mendes

TORONTO
A geologist at the center of one of Canada’s biggest financial scandals, the fraudulent massive gold find by the former Canadian mining company Bre-X, may have faked his own death, according to press reports.

Michael de Guzman, who was thought to committed suicide by jumping into an Indonesian jungle from a helicopter eight years ago, has sent $25,000 to his widow according to a statement made by Mrs. Genie de Guzman to a Singapore newspaper.

Mrs. Guzman stated that the money was drawn from a Brazilian branch of the American Citibank financial group three months ago.

A body was found in the Indonesian jungle eight years ago, but without definitive DNA proof that it was that of Michael de Guzman, the body was later cremated.

After the enormous fraud was discovered, suspicion focused on Mr. Guzman as the person who had tampered with the mining samples that indicated a major gold find that turned out to be the largest mining scandal in Canada.