Peter Pocklington

Peter Pocklington
Born Peter Hugh Pocklington
(1941-11-18) November 18, 1941
Regina, Saskatchewan
Residence Palm Desert, California
Occupation Entrepreneur
Known for former owner of the Edmonton Oilers from 1976 to 1998; felony perjury conviction in the United States in 2010.
Spouse(s) Eva

Peter Hugh Pocklington (born November 18, 1941) is a Canadian entrepreneur and vocal advocate of free-market capitalism. He is also a convicted felon, having pleaded guilty in the state of California to committing perjury during bankruptcy proceedings.

The one-time head of a business empire that spanned auto dealerships, food-processing companies, real estate, a trust company and professional sports teams, Pocklington is perhaps best known as the owner of the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers and as the man who traded the rights to hockey's greatest player, Wayne Gretzky, to the Los Angeles Kings.

Pocklington's life experiences were extensively documented in the 2009 biography, I'd Trade Him Again: On Gretzky, Politics And The Pursuit Of The Perfect Deal, written by Terry McConnell and J'lyn Nye. The book's title was inspired by Pocklington's ongoing conviction the Gretzky trade was the right deal at the right time and had a positive impact on all parties concerned - the Oilers, the Kings, Gretzky and the game itself.

Early life and career

Pocklington was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, to Basil Pocklington, an insurance executive who had immigrated from England as a young man, and his wife, Eileen (Dempsey), and grew up in London, Ontario.

The greatest influence on young Pocklington was the legendary motivational speaker Earl Nightingale and his best-selling recording, The Strangest Secret. "It literally stated, 'You become what you think about,' " Pocklington told his biographers.[1] He says he still has the record today.

One of his earliest business ventures was to find old cars on the farms around his maternal grandparents' home in Carberry, Manitoba, buy them for $25, then ship them to Ontario by train, where he sold them for upwards of $500. Because of the West's dry, cold climate, the cars, many of them 25 to 40 years old, were in better shape than comparable vehicles that had been driven on Ontario's salted roads.

By the time Pocklington was 25, he owned his first car dealership, Westown Ford in Tilbury, Ontario. At the time, he was the youngest Ford dealer in Canada. Within a few years he had sold the Tilbury dealership and bought another in nearby Chatham. By 1971, when Pocklington was only 29, he left Ontario and moved west, where he bought Shirley Ford in Edmonton, Alberta.

Within a few years, Pocklington was running the most successful Ford dealership in Canada. He also had the cash flow to buy Edmonton's fledgling team in the World Hockey Association.

Sports owner

Pocklington would come to operate several businesses over the next several years, but he has always said owning sports teams gave him the most satisfaction.

The man who came to be known as "Peter Puck" bought part ownership of the Edmonton Oilers in 1976. According to his biography, he offered a diamond ring his wife was wearing to dinner as his downpayment. Within a year, Pocklington bought out his partner, Nelson Skalbania, who would later own the WHA team in Indianapolis, the Racers. It was also from Skalbania that Pocklington acquired perhaps the greatest hockey player ever. In the fall of 1978, Skalbania offered Pocklington the rights to a 17-year-old phenom named Wayne Gretzky. The Oilers' owner did not hesitate to do the deal. A few months later, Pocklington parlayed the Gretzky signing into a merger between the WHA and the National Hockey League. Edmonton had its NHL franchise. Five years later, the Oilers would win their first of five Stanley Cup championships they'd capture under Pocklington's ownership.

Over the next 18 years, Pocklington also owned the Edmonton Trappers of baseball's Pacific Coast League, the Edmonton Drillers of the North American Soccer League and the National Professional Soccer League, and the Kamloops Junior Oilers of the Western Hockey League.

Entrepreneur

Edmonton in the 1970s was experiencing explosive growth fuelled by an oil boom and several fortunes were made. Among the most successful entrepreneurs was Pocklington, whose business empire eventually exceeded $2 billion in sales. Among his ventures: a second car dealership, Elgin Ford, in downtown Toronto; massive real estate holdings throughout Alberta and Ontario; Fidelity Trust, one of Canada's largest trust companies; Palm Dairies, one of the largest retailers of dairy products in Western Canada; Canbra Foods, a canola manufacturer; Magic Pantry, which sold prepared foods that did not require refrigeration; Kretschmar Foods, which serviced restaurants; Green Acre Farms, a chicken-processing company with plants in Texas and Mississippi; and Gainers, an Edmonton-based beef- and pork-packing company.

Hostage-taking

"I thought I was bullet-proof — until I was shot," Pocklington told his biographers.[1] In April 1982, a gunman later identified as Mirko Petrovic, a Yugoslav immigrant, broke into Pocklington's Edmonton home and took hostages. Among them: Pocklington's wife Eva; a babysitter for the couple's young son; a housekeeper; and Pocklington himself.

Petrovic's plan was to kidnap Eva Pocklington, but she escaped. The other two people in the house were released, leaving Pocklington, who was with the gunman for 11 hours while he negotiated a $2-million ransom. However, before the ransom could be paid, police sneaked into the house and shot both Petrovic and Pocklington, wounding both men.

They each made a full recovery and Petrovic served five years in an Alberta prison before he was released and returned to Yugoslavia.

Politics

In 1983, the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada staged a leadership convention to elect a new leader to challenge the governing Liberal party and its leader, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Among the candidates was Pocklington. A libertarian at heart, he campaigned on a platform of free trade with the United States, privatizing government-owned Crown corporations like Air Canada, Petro-Canada and Canadian National Railway, retiring the national debt and, most radical of all, a flat tax — a fixed rate of income tax everyone who earned more than a minimum salary would pay.

In his autobiography, ''Gretzky'', the Oilers' star talked about how he reluctantly stood behind Pocklington at the latter's campaign appearances, not wanting to "say no to (my) boss". In the end, Pocklington fell far below his expectations of delegates; one advisor jokingly guessed "99", Gretzky's sweater number, when asked how the Oilers' owner would do in the balloting. (He wasn't far off; Pocklington received 102 delegates and failed to make the second ballot, supporting eventual winner Brian Mulroney.)

Philanthropy

Pocklington was an active philanthropist for many years in Edmonton. Among his gifts: $1.5 million he helped raise for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; $1 million for the Jamie Platz YMCA; $300,000 for the Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic at the University of Alberta; $250,000 to establish a free-enterprise chair at the University of Alberta's School of Business; and upwards of $2 million for Junior Achievement. It was through his charitable works he became close friends with former U.S. presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush[1]

Pocklington was also active in business and philanthropic pursuits after settling in the U.S. He was a long-time member of the board of the Betty Ford Center, and had lectured on the merits of the free-enterprise system in local schools. As part of his community service sentence following his perjury conviction, Pocklington spoke to high-school students who wrote supportive letters to the court, although to his detriment. U.S. assistant attorney Tony Raphael stated that "(Judge Virginia Phillips)'s comment was the letters showed the defendant went out and talked to the kids about how he became successful and wealthy. But really, she felt he should have talked to them about how he got in trouble with the law and also had been convicted of a crime.”[2]

Leaving Canada for the U.S.A.

In October 1998, after 27 years in Edmonton, Peter Pocklington moved to the U.S. with his wife Eva, and settled in Indian Wells, California where they owned and resided in a condominium at The Vintage Country Club, one of the nation's most exclusive gated communities. After declaring bankruptcy, Pocklington and his wife Eva moved to a rented patio home on Running Springs Drive in The Lakes Golf & Country Club community in Palm Desert, California.

Controversies

Gainers strike

While Pocklington's business empire realized its successes, it suffered its failures, too. Prime interest rates in the early 1980s topped out at 18.5 per cent, a development that sapped the oil boom of its strength, collapsed the real estate market and sank Fidelity Trust in a sea of declining property values.

But perhaps Pocklington's most notorious setback was the result of a six-month strike that crippled Gainers, which at the time was Canada's second largest meat packer. Pocklington used non-union labour, primarily from Quebec, to keep the plant operating despite the picket lines, a decision that earned him the enmity of Canada's labour movement. Eventually, he agreed to settle the strike and rehire the striking workers at the request of the Alberta government. In return, says Pocklington in his biography, the Alberta premier of the day, Don Getty, agreed to give Gainers an interest-free loan for $50 million. Gainers would give the province 10 per cent of its operating profit every year for the next four years, and repay a conventional mortgage after that. Pocklington also insisted the province disband its pork marketing board, which fixed prices on pork at a rate higher than what the meat packers could sell it in the marketplace.

Instead, the government gave Gainers $55 million at 10.5 per cent interest, and didn't get rid of the marketing board. "They said, 'Take it or leave it,' " Pocklington told his biographers.[1] Crippled with a debt-servicing cost it did not anticipate and handicapped by inflated production costs created by the marketing board, Gainers immediately began to drown in a sea of red ink. Loan repayments were missed and within three years, the Alberta government took over Gainers. The province lost $89 million on the venture in the four years it operated Gainers — more than double the rate of loss in Pocklington's last few years at the helm — and eventually sold the company for 1/20th of the price Pocklington paid for it 11 years earlier.

Stanley Cup

Basil Pocklington's name on the Stanley Cup

After the Edmonton Oilers won their first Stanley Cup in 1983–84, Peter Pocklington included his father, Basil Pocklington, on the list of people and players who were to have their names engraved on the trophy. The NHL did not check the validity of the names on the list, and the Cup was engraved as usual. NHL executives, via the Hockey Hall of Fame, had the engraver strike out the name of the senior Pocklington by engraving a series of Xs over his name. Of the two dozen engraving errors that appear on the Stanley Cup all but one are spelling errors. Basil Pocklington is the only name that is covered. When Peter Pocklington was confronted with the issue, he protested that it was the engraver's fault, not his, that the engraver had mixed up the people who were actually technical members of the team (Basil was not one of them) with a list of individuals who were to receive miniature replica Cups (Basil was one of them). After this error, the NHL and Hockey Hall of Fame adopted policies to confirm the roster and the relation of the people on the engraving list to the championship team.

Gretzky Trade

Main article: The Trade

On August 9, 1988, Pocklington shocked hockey fans by trading Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, $15 million cash, and the Kings' first-round draft picks in 1989, 1991 and 1993. One member of the Canadian House of Commons demanded the government block the trade, another man burned Pocklington in effigy, and Gretzky's bride, actress Janet Jones, was branded hockey's Yoko Ono.

There is debate as to whether Gretzky "jumped" or was "pushed." A book by former Kings owner Bruce McNall quotes Pocklington as saying Gretzky had become impossible to deal with since he began dating Jones, who let it be known that she was not going to live in Edmonton after they got married. Pocklington claims he has had only nice things to say about the couple, yet he has repeatedly defended the trade as being a sound business decision that he would not hesitate to make again. However, he would later admit the trade to be a difficult decision, but necessary to keep the team financially afloat.[3]

Losing the Oilers

By the late 1980s, success was also killing the Edmonton Oilers. Players' salaries began to skyrocket, and Gretzky was traded in large part because Pocklington had come to realize he would not be able to keep his star player and would lose him to free agency. More players were parceled off as their salary expectations exceeded the team's ability to pay: Paul Coffey, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe and Grant Fuhr.

By the mid-1990s, the Oilers were still losing money and Pocklington expressed an unwillingness to use his other businesses to bankroll his hockey team. He publicly threatened to move the team — Hamilton and Minneapolis were among the destinations contemplated — but Pocklington never made good on the threats. He was committed to keeping the team in Edmonton and used the possibility of a move to gain improvements to the arena where they played.

Pocklington operated the team on a line of credit, paying 19-per-cent interest to the Alberta Treasury Branches. He asked the ATB to convert the outstanding amount, about $120 million into a conventional mortgage he could pay down. The ATB refused, and instead called his loan. His remaining business empire was sold off piece by piece, including the Oilers and Trappers and Canbra Foods. "Losing the Oilers was like having my heart torn out," Pocklington told his biographers.[1]

Stanley Cup rings

In May 2012, Pocklington announced his family was auctioning memorabilia from his time as owner of the Oilers, including his rings from their Stanley Cup championships. According to the Edmonton Journal, this was the second time the rings were put up for auction. In 2008, an anonymous bidder offered $272,829 for the rings, but withdrew his bid amid rumours the rings were not the only set Pocklington had commissioned. Pocklington later claimed in his biography the confusion stemmed from a set of rings he had made for his father, and were sold by his father’s estate in 2001. The rings offered in 2008 and again in 2012 have been certified as authentic, he said.[4]

Bankruptcy and Perjury Conviction

Pocklington invested in several businesses in the U.S., including the nutraceutical maker Naturade, and golf club manufacturers Golf Gear and Sonartec. However, those investments yielded more heartache than profit, and what he claims was fiduciary malfeasance by some partners in these ventures left Pocklington the target of numerous lawsuits. In the summer of 2008, one of those suits resulted in raids by U.S. Marshalls of the Pocklington home in Indian Wells, California, where a number of items belonging to his wife, including gowns, shoes and purses, as well as Andy Warhol prints of Mick Jagger, were seized. These were eventually returned.

That same summer, Pocklington decided to declare personal bankruptcy. It was one way to stave off what he considered scurrilous lawsuits and "to save myself hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees," he told his biographers.[1] He declared assets of $2,900 and liabilities of $19.7 million.

That significant gap attracted the attention of prosecutors and the bankruptcy trustee. In the spring of 2009, Pocklington was charged with bankruptcy fraud. He blames himself for the fact his list of assets wasn't more comprehensive. "Unfortunately, my bankruptcy lawyer did a very poor job and didn't list the paperwork properly," Pocklington told his biographers. "And I didn't ask the proper questions before I signed off on it. I should have. I was wrong not to."[1]

In the fall of 2010, Pocklington and the prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain in which he pleaded guilty to perjury and was sentenced to probation and house arrest.[5]

On September 19, 2013, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported that Pocklington "could be sentenced to up to five years in prison on Friday for breaching the conditions of his release" after Judge Phillips ruled Pocklington had breached the conditions of his probation by failing to disclose tens of thousands of dollars he received from his involvement in several gold-mining businesses.[6] CTV News reported that same day that sentencing arguments would be heard Friday, September 20, 2013.[7]

Prison Sentence

On September 20, 2013, a California judge sentenced Peter Pocklington to six months in prison, followed by a further six months’ house arrest for breaching his probation on his perjury conviction. The court had earlier heard evidence that Pocklington had, over a 19-month period, failed to disclose consulting fees paid to a company controlled by his wife. Pocklington argued that was not the case, that all income was reported through tax returns and bank statements. Nevertheless, California District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips gave Pocklington until Dec. 9, 2013, to report to prison.[8][9]

At the time, Pocklington released a statement saying "I accept full responsibility for my actions.[10]

On December 6, 2013, the CBC reported that Pocklington would appeal his sentence, had been released on $100,000 bail and would not be reporting to prison as ordered.[11]

Allegations of security fraud

In April 2012, investigators with the Arizona Corporation Commission alleged Pocklington and an associate, John McNeil, had engaged in securities fraud related to Crystal Pistol Resources LLC and Liberty Bell Resources 1, LLC. Pocklington vigorously denied the allegations, insisted he and McNeil had done nothing wrong, and that investors in the mining venture were not being misled. The geologists associated with the project were, according to the mining company newsletter, also vigorously defending their data. Those geologists “boast impeccable reputations and have been conscientious and thorough in their testing,” Pocklington wrote in a letter to the Edmonton Journal. “We do not tell our investors anything their data is not telling us."[12]

On June 4, 2013, Decision #73864[13] was rendered by the Arizona Corporations Commission, which include the following:

"Therefore, on the basis of the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Respondents consent the entry of this Order... the Commission finds that the following relief is appropriate, in the public interest, and necessary for the protection of investors:

"IT IS ORDERED... that Respondents(CRYSTAL PISTOL RESOURCES, LLC, CRYSTAL PISTOL MANAGEMENT, LLC, LIBERTY BELL RESOURCES I, LLC, PETER POCKLINGTON and JOHN M. MCNEIL), and any of Respondents' agents, employees, successors and assigns, permanently cease and desist from violating the Securities Act.

"IT IS FURTHER ORDERED... that Respondents shall pay restitution to the Commission in the principal amount of $5,149,316. .... The Commission shall disburse the funds on a pro-rata basis to investors shown on the records of the Commission.

"IT IS FURTHER ORDERED... that Respondent shall, jointly and severally with all Respondents against whom orders are entered pay an administrative penalty in the amount of $100,000.

"CRYSTAL PISTOL RESOURCES, LLC, CRYSTAL PISTOL MANAGEMENT, LLC, LIBERTY BELL RESOURCES I, LLC, PETER POCKLINGTON and JOHN M. MCNEIL neither admit nor deny the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law contained in the Order."

A statement by Pocklington's company was included in Canadian media accounts, which stated “the allegations of wrongdoing ... have been laid to rest” with the commission’s decision.

“We have done nothing wrong,” Pocklington said in the release. “We have worked diligently and honestly with all of our investors and have been conscientious in guiding the company through the necessary regulatory frameworks. We are committed to raising capital in accordance with existing rules and regulations.”

He added that any errors were “born of inexperience and naivete, not malice or avarice,” and were quickly rectified. " 'Nowhere in this whole situation did anybody lose any money,' said Pocklington spokesman and biographer Terry McConnell, adding that agreeing to pay the fine is less costly than continuing to fight the allegations."[14][15][16]

On December 6, 2013, a report by the CBC stated that the $5,149,316 fine remains unpaid.[11]

Offshore account allegations

Following Pocklington's arrest by the FBI on March 11, 2009, United States Attorney Thom Mrozek stated "we have reasons to believe he may have ... assets offshore."

An article by Edmonton Journal reporter Darcy Henton, published on April 9, 2010, states that an indictment alleges that seven months before a September 2008 hearing in his bankruptcy case, Pocklington wrote a series of cheques on an account with a Bahamian investment corporation not mentioned in his bankruptcy petition.[17]

After Pocklington's conviction in September 2013 of breaching the terms of his probation, Los Angeles lawyer David Casselman, whose firm represents the province of Alberta in a $13-million civil lawsuit against Pocklington, stated there is evidence Pocklington has placed money in offshore accounts.[6]

On December 6, 2013, a Canadian Press report stated: "In previous court documents, investigators said they believed Pocklington was associated with off-shore companies registered in the Bahamas."[18]

A January 2009 Report on Business article by Brent Jang describes a Bahamian entity called Dempsey Investment Corp., which some of Pocklington's creditors and their lawyers allege is controlled by Pocklington. Dempsey is Pocklington's mother's maiden name.

Pocklington has denied these allegations.

Edmonton Oilers’ 1984 Reunion

On October 8, 2014, Pocklington was the focus of a media opportunity organized by the Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club to promote the 30-year reunion of the 1984 Stanley Cup championship team. When asked if he was concerned about the reception he would get from Edmontonians, he replied: “I really don’t give a damn what some of the unwashed have to say.”[19] His comment resulted in a social media storm that continued until his appearance at the October 10th Edmonton Oilers 1985 Stanley Cup Reunion at Rexall Place, in Edmonton, Alberta. Media polls indicated he was in for a rough reception at the event.[20] However, much to the surprise of many, he received a standing ovation from fans in attendance. He subsequently sent letters to the editors of both local daily newspapers: The Edmonton Sun and The Edmonton Journal. The Sun published the letter of thanks intact on October 14, 2014.[21]

In film, print and social media

Pocklington has appeared as himself in several television series:

Pocklington is also the subject of several books:

On February 24, 2012, a Los Angeles-based social media firm hired by Pocklington posted a series of six videos on "The Official YouTube Channel for Peter Pocklington." These videos, shot in the living room of Pocklington's Palm Desert home, were developed as part of a "reputation management" campaign that included accounts on Twitter (@IamPocklington) and Facebook (Peter Hugh Pocklington).

Health challenges

Pocklington has been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration, or AMD. As a result, he no longer drives and requires others to assist in reading memos or other business correspondence to him. On October 19, 2013, the Edmonton Sun reported that Pocklington would seek stem-cell treatment for this condition.[22]

On September 20, 2013, the deadline for Pocklington to report to prison was set as December 9, 2013, so that he could undergo scheduled colon reconstruction surgery to treat diverticulitis in November 2013.[23] However, he has yet to report to prison pending the outcome of his appeal.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 McConnell, Terry; Nye, J'lyn (2009-11-24). I'd Trade Him Again:On Gretzky, Politics, and the Pursuit of the Perfect Deal.
  2. ↑ Chris Purdy (September 20, 2013). "Former Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington sentenced to prison in California". Maclean's.
  3. ↑ Harrison, Doug (2009-10-29). "Gretzky trade was 'no fun,' Pocklington recalls". Cbc.ca. Retrieved 2010-04-29.
  4. ↑ "Pocklington selling Stanley Cup rings". Edmonton Sun. May 22, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Peter Pocklington reaches plea deal in bid to avoid jail". The Globe and Mail (Toronto). August 23, 2012.
  6. 1 2 "Peter Pocklington again may face jail time in California". CBC News. September 19, 2013.
  7. ↑ Julia Parrish (September 19, 2013). "Former Oilers owner Peter Pocklington scores another conviction in California". CTV News Edmonton.
  8. ↑ Charles Rusnell and Jennie Russell, (September 20, 2013). "Peter Pocklington, ex-Edmonton Oilers owner, gets jail time". CBC News.
  9. ↑ "Former Edmonton Oilers Owner Peter Pocklington Sentenced To Jail In California". The Huffington Post. September 20, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Peter Pocklington accepts “full responsibility” for his actions". Global News. September 20, 2013.
  11. 1 2 "Former Oilers owner Peter Pocklington avoids prison". CBC News. December 6, 2013.
  12. ↑ Pocklington, Peter (2012-04-24). "Pocklington denies fraud". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
  13. ↑ http://edocket.azcc.gov/Default.aspx?SEARCH=S-20845A-12-0134
  14. ↑ "Peter Pocklington and associate ordered to pay $5-million to settle securities fraud case in Arizona". Financial Post. May 7, 2013.
  15. ↑ "Ex-Oilers owner Peter Pocklington settles securities fraud case". CTV News. May 6, 2013.
  16. ↑ Pamela Roth (May 5, 2013). "Former Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington ends legal battle with consent order". Edmonton Sun.
  17. ↑ Darcy Henton (April 8, 2010). "Ex-Oilers owner Pocklington seeks change in release conditions". Faceoff.com.
  18. ↑ "Former Oilers owner Pocklington avoids jail". Sportsnet. December 6, 2013.
  19. ↑ Curtis Stock (October 8, 2014). "Peter Puck: ‘I really don’t give a damn what some of the unwashed have to say’". Canada.com.
  20. ↑ "Edmonton Oilers reunion: Standing ovation for Pocklington". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. October 11, 2014.
  21. ↑ "Former Oilers owner Peter Pocklington says thanks to fans and the Oilers organization for the 'spectacular' reunion show". Edmonton Sun. October 11, 2014.
  22. ↑ Catherine Griwkowsky (October 19, 2013). "Ex-Edmonton Oilers owner seeking stem cell research to improve eye-sight". Edmonton Sun.
  23. ↑ "Former Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington sentenced to six months in jail". The Globe and Mail (Toronto). September 20, 2013.
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