The former CEO of Baffin Fisheries who built himself a mansion on the company’s dime declined to enter a plea when his fraud case was called in provincial court yesterday.

In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled Garth Reid unlawfully took at least half a million dollars from the Inuit-owned company, which had filed the civil suit to recoup the money. Now, the criminal case against Reid is winding its way through the courts.

The 51-year-old had the million-dollar home and guest house built on his father’s property in Winterton, overlooking Trinity Bay, where’s he’s from.

The civil suit stated Baffin Fisheries and a subsidiary were invoiced by a Quebec construction company for work on Reid’s house — money that had been earmarked for a new company office at Pond Inlet in Nunavut.

The discrepancies came to light in the fall of 2017, which was followed by Reid’s firing and the lawsuit being filed against him.

Reid had denied all the allegations, saying if company money was used on his house, it was a company mistake that he knew nothing about. But Supreme Court Justice Vikas Khaladkar ruled in the lawsuit that there was no doubt Reid redirected the funds, paving the way for the criminal charges that followed.

Reid was charged in January with fraud over $5,000 and criminal breach of trust. The penalty is usually a fine and restitution order but it can result in a maximum of 14 years in prison.

The case is due back in provincial court in August.