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by Mike Caswell

Michael Scott, an Alberta man awaiting sentencing in the United States for his part in the 2015 accounting fraud at SAExploration Holdings Inc., has asked the judge to spare him jail. He says that his part in the scheme was minimal, with Kelowna-Alaska resident Jeffrey Hastings being one of the instigators. Mr. Scott says that he pleaded guilty early in the case, and the information he provided about his co-accused was of considerable assistance to prosecutors.

The request arises from a scheme in which New York prosecutors charged Mr. Hastings, Mr. Scott and others for a $100-million accounting fraud at SAExploration. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The government claimed that the company reported revenue that did not exist, generating the figures through transactions with a related entity. Prosecutors also said that the men misappropriated millions of dollars from the company.

With his sentencing date approaching, Mr. Scott, 65, has set out what he sees as an appropriate sentence. In a memorandum filed on Tuesday, Jan. 30, he portrays his part in the fraud as being relatively minor. He says that he became involved when Mr. Hastings and another defendant, Texas resident Brent Whiteley, recruited him to help funnel money out of SAExploration and into private entities that Mr. Hastings and Mr. Whiteley controlled. (The men were all officers of SAExploration at the time.) At the direction of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Whiteley, he created fake purchase orders, Mr. Scott says. His participation was necessary, as he had the authorization and know-how to create reports that would justify the orders, the memorandum states.

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