TORONTO — A Canadian couple who fled to the United States amid allegations of a multimillion-dollar swindle pleaded guilty Tuesday and may face up to eight years in prison.
Ron and Loren Koval, both 51, disappeared in October when accusations of fraud at a private health clinic began to surface. They lived in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and elsewhere in the United States for weeks.
They agreed to turn themselves in when police threatened to arrest their daughter. On Dec. 23, the Kovals surrendered at the U.S. border at Niagara Falls after riding taxis from Georgia to upstate New York. They had several hundred thousand dollars in cash in their possession.
A high-living couple known for parties on their boat on Lake Ontario, the Kovals were accused of using false lease agreements to embezzle nearly $60 million as directors of a financial company and health center in Toronto.
In a sentencing hearing Tuesday, prosecutors asked for eight-year prison sentences while the couple’s lawyers argued for five-year terms. The judge reserved a decision until an unspecified date.
The Kovals sat together in the prisoners’ dock, and each stood up to apologize.
“They trusted me and I abused that trust,” Loren Koval said of companies that provided millions of dollars in financing for nonexistent medical equipment.
She also apologized to employees of the King’s Health Center, and family members she listed as directors of nonexistent companies.
A statement detailing the Kovals’ lavish lifestyle and fraudulent dealings was read out in court, mentioning a $200,000 Bentley automobile they owned and a $32,670 Christmas Party they held in 1999 for health clinic staff.
According to the statement, the fraud involved two large financial institutions — Societe Generale, the largest private bank in France, and the Associates-Associates Capital Ltd. of the United States.
