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by Mike Caswell

New York prosecutors have, once again, seized assets belonging to Jeffrey Hastings, the Kelowna-Alaska man jailed in the United States for a $100-million accounting fraud. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) Having already seized and sold a $4.95-million house in Hawaii, they have moved on to his bank accounts. Among them is a savings account containing $1-million.

The seizure of Mr. Hastings's bank accounts comes as part of a case in which prosecutors accused him of running a scheme in which his company, SAExploration Holdings Inc., reported $100-million in revenue that did not exist. He and others also misappropriated millions of dollars worth of the company's money, the government claimed. There was no trial for Mr. Hastings, as he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The judge later imposed a three-year jail term.

As part of Mr. Hastings's sentence, the judge entered a $7.3-million forfeiture order. With Mr. Hastings in prison, prosecutors have been pursuing his assets to satisfy that order. They previously sold a property that he owned in Hawaii, described as a five-bedroom, 4,825-square-foot home built next to golf course on the west end of Maui. While the home sold for $4.95-million, the government had to pay out liens and had to pay Mr. Hastings's wife the value of one-half of the home, leaving just $1.73-million for prosecutors to recover.

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