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   XPost: alt.true-crime, van.general   
   From: gregcarrsober@gmail.com   
      
   On May 9, 3:55 am, Greg  Carr  wrote:   
   > A B.C. man who vanished a decade ago in a possible underworld killing   
   > set up offshore companies and bank accounts before he went missing,   
   > and is among the 450 Canadians named in the recent massive leak of tax-   
   > haven data.   
   >   
   >  MAPCanada's offshore account-holders   
   > Greg Cyr's ex-wife is now asking police to take a new look at his   
   > disappearance, after CBC News showed her secret financial documents   
   > found amid the leaked files.   
   >   
   > Cyr, a 40-year-old drywaller, disappeared in 2003 after heading to a   
   > meeting in Vancouver with what police later told Miriam Byrne were her   
   > former husband's "underworld connections."   
   >   
   > "What's frustrating for me is it took years … years to put a picture   
   > together," Byrne said after looking at some of the records. The files   
   > were part of an unprecedented leak of financial data obtained by the   
   > Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists   
   > and shared with the CBC and other global media outlets.   
   >   
   > "If we would have had this..." Byrne said, pausing. "I'm speechless."   
   >   
   > How CBC obtained the documents   
   > The documents show that the year before Cyr disappeared, he set up two   
   > companies through a firm called TrustNet, which provides offshore   
   > services in the Cook Islands, a South Pacific tax haven.   
   >   
   > Cyr used one of his companies, Sentinel Holdings, to buy a $1.5-   
   > million property on Beach Drive in Victoria. The area is an exclusive   
   > waterfront neighbourhood adjoining the Royal Victoria Yacht Club and   
   > Victoria Golf Club. But Cyr kept his ownership of the house a secret   
   > from his ex-wife, even as he did construction work on it.   
   >   
   > "I thought it was his employer's," she said.   
   >   
   > Devoted dad   
   > By then, Byrne and Cyr were divorced, with a five-year-old son.   
   >   
   > Byrne said their marriage ended after Cyr confessed he had shipped   
   > some marijuana from British Columbia to Whitehorse.   
   >   
   > Cyr eventually convinced her he had straightened out, Byrne said, and   
   > he was gradually permitted more time with their son.   
   >   
   > Cyr once told his ex-wife that 'the one thing I've done right in my   
   > life is be a dad,' she said. (Courtesy of Miriam Byrne)   
   > As a drywaller, he'd be up at dawn to head to job sites. Later, he ran   
   > a tile and wood import business. He became a devoted father who doted   
   > on their son.   
   >   
   > "I remember him on the phone saying to me, 'Miriam, the one thing I've   
   > done right in my life is be a dad,'" Byrne recalled.   
   >   
   > Their son cherished his father's visits. "Greg would ring the   
   > doorbell, our son would run up and next thing you know, all they did   
   > was roll around and wrestle," Byrne said.   
   >   
   > So it came as a shock one day in October 2003 when Cyr failed to pick   
   > their boy up from school. He has never been heard from since.   
   >   
   > Byrne later applied to the B.C. Supreme Court to have Cyr declared   
   > dead, so she could claim a life insurance payout for their son.   
   >   
   > The judge heard evidence that as a youth, Cyr sold drugs and   
   > associated with the Hells Angels, and that Vancouver police had told   
   > Byrne her ex-husband was murdered by associates.   
   >   
   > Cyr's girlfriend at the time described him in an affidavit as   
   > "frightened … like a child about to be left alone" on the day he went   
   > to the meeting from which he never returned.   
   >   
   > If you have more information on this story, or other investigative   
   > tips to pass on, please email investigati...@cbc.ca   
   >   
   > But Judge Malcolm Macaulay rejected Byrne's bid, finding it was   
   > equally likely that Cyr earned money through the illegal drug trade,   
   > had sizable hidden assets and was motivated to disappear.   
   >   
   > Cyr had fled before. Born Brent Thurston, he ran from a charge of   
   > narcotics possession in Manitoba in 1988. A warrant was issued for his   
   > arrest. Cyr eventually moved to Yukon and changed his name. The   
   > warrant is still outstanding.   
   >   
   > It was a history Cyr kept mainly hidden from Byrne until after they   
   > were married. But she never believed he could do it again.   
   >   
   > "He would have had our son not feel like he'd lost biggest most   
   > important thing in his life," Byrne said. "He wouldn't do that"   
   >   
   > TrustNet stonewalls   
   > Armed with that conviction, Byrne appealed to TrustNet for answers.   
   > She had obtained a duffle bag of documents linking Cyr to the offshore-   
   > services firm from his girlfriend. And in January 2004, three months   
   > after Cyr vanished, Byrne picked up the phone and called the company   
   > in the Cook Islands.   
   >   
   > "I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember my heart racing and   
   > sitting at my desk and trying to be very professional and not   
   > emotional," she said.   
   >   
   > Read the note in Greg Cyr's offshore account about how his ex-wife   
   > called asking after him.   
   >   
   > "At that point we just wanted to get any clue as to where he might   
   > have gone, what might have happened. Something."   
   >   
   > A record of that call is among the documents obtained by CBC News.   
   >   
   > "Miriam Byrne called," TrustNet employee Amanda Keu wrote in a memo in   
   > Cyr's offshore account.   
   >   
   > Keu noted that Byrne "appeared to be very distressed and was crying"   
   > about her missing ex-husband, who she believed was dead   
   >   
   > "She just wanted to know if he was alive," Keu wrote.   
   >   
   > But Keu clung to the Cook Islands' strict financial-secrecy laws and   
   > refused to acknowledge anything about Cyr. After hanging up, TrustNet   
   > employees tried to reach Cyr by phone and email. There is no record he   
   > ever responded.   
   >   
   > "I remember just thinking, 'Can someone just tell me something?'"   
   > Byrne recounted.   
   >   
   > Byrne says the files about her ex-husband, documents discovered amid a   
   > massive trove of offshore financial records, point to the need for   
   > police to interview more people in the Cyr case. (CBC)   
   > TrustNet continued to stonewall inquiries about Cyr four months later   
   > when a receiver in B.C. faxed and called with a court order empowering   
   > him to act on Cyr's behalf. The employee who responded said TrustNet   
   > "did not recognize foreign judgments."   
   >   
   > Privately, though, the firm eventually started having concerns. Seven   
   > months after its client went missing, the company filed a report with   
   > the Cook Islands Financial Intelligence Unit, indicating Cyr might   
   > have been involved in criminal transactions or money laundering.   
   >   
   > But TrustNet continued to frustrate the B.C. receiver. A TrustNet   
      
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