QUEBEC JUDGE FOUND GUILTY

MONTREAL - A Quebec Superior Court judge was convicted Monday of
laundering more than $1 million in drug money and faces up to 10 years
in prison.

Robert Flahiff, 51, was charged with laundering the money between 1989
and 1991 while he was a lawyer. He will be sentenced Feb. 8.

According to testimony, Flahiff began taking satchels of cash to a
branch of the Bank of Montreal in 1989. A former bank official
testified that he was allowed to enter the branch after business hours
with a sports bag containing thousands of dollars.

Flahiff claimed the cash came from a client who had sold his business
and wanted to send the money elsewhere to avoid an embittered partner.
The bills were turned into bank drafts that ended up in Swiss banks.

Flahiff was named a judge in 1993 and has been on paid sick leave
since January 1997. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The defense acknowledged that Flahiff transferred money to Switzerland
for client Paul Larue, a cocaine dealer arrested in 1993, but denied
that Flahiff knew the funds were proceeds of crime.

They argued there was no evidence to corroborate Larue's claim that
Flahiff knew where the money came from.

Larue faced life imprisonment in the United States after he was caught
in a cocaine sting in 1993 in Burlington, Vt. He got 14 years after
agreeing to become a police informant against Flahiff.