Earl Jones is shown in Montreal, on July 27, 2009. Financial adviser Jones is being released from prison Thursday after serving one-third of his 11-year sentence for orchestrating a massive fraud scheme. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Peter Rakobowchuk, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL - Financial adviser Earl Jones, the man behind a $50-million scam that cost many people their life savings, is being released from prison Thursday after serving one-third of his 11-year sentence.
Joey Davis, whose mother was bilked of $200,000, says a Correctional Service Canada official called him to say Jones would be released Thursday afternoon.
Davis said the release will “shine a flashlight on what happened nearly five years ago” and rekindle some old feelings from Jones’ victims.
“There are a lot of families who were affected and devastated by this and it’s still fresh in their minds,” he said in an interview.
Davis said both he and his mother were surprised to learn that Jones would be released in the Montreal area, but noted that he still has to report to a parole officer once a week.
“I was told he does not have to go through a transition program (and) he does qualify for full release on his own recognizance,” Davis said.
Jones pleaded guilty to running a pyramid scheme that started in 1982 and targeted more than 1,500 victims, including several close friends and relatives.
Davis said his 84-year-old mother had moved on with her life but is still trying to recover after loosing thousands of dollars.
“She was a long-term investor, over 25 years she had money with Earl Jones, and on paper she lost everything,” he said.
“It was a considerable amount — 90 per cent of her savings, but she was able to get back to some form of decent life, but nothing compared to what life was before.”
For Davis, there are a number of key questions that remain unanswered.
“The paper trail shows this scheme, this Ponzi scheme, was concocted in the early 1980s,” he said. “I’d really like to know what led him to do this, what were the circumstances, why he did this and also, how he was able to get away with this for so long.”
Jones has spent more than four years behind bars after a judge handed down an 11-year-sentence in February 2010.
