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by Mike Caswell

George Georgiou, the former Toronto broker serving 25 years in jail for fraud in the United States, is trying once again to have the appeal court overturn his conviction. He has requested a hearing before all of the judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. His lawyer plans to argue, perhaps more forcefully than in a prior appeal, that prosecutors failed to properly disclose addiction and mental health issues with a key witness.

The request comes as Mr. Georgiou, 45, is approaching the fifth anniversary of his conviction. During his 13-day trial in February, 2010, prosecutors claimed that he ran an international stock fraud ring from 2004 to 2008 that caused $55.8-million in investor losses. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) Among other things he manipulated four pink sheets listings, tried to bribe brokers and caused the demise of a Bahamian brokerage, the government said.

Mr. Georgiou first appealed his conviction in 2011, complaining that prosecutors knowingly suppressed problems with a key witness, a man named Kevin Waltzer. Among other things, he said that prosecutors hid the full extent of Mr. Waltzer's alcohol and cocaine addictions. They also did not fully disclose mental health issues, which included diagnoses of anxiety and depression, Mr. Georgiou claimed. Cross-examination of Mr. Waltzer before the jury "would have been absolutely devastating" had the defence known about his conditions, the appeal stated.

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