By Canadian Press

Murder trial hears of Richard Oland’s wealth – and son’s mounting debts

Jan 31, 2019 | 11:59 AM

SAINT JOHN, N.B. — While Dennis Oland was dealing with mounting debt in 2011, his father Richard was living the life of a multi-millionaire, travelling the world in pursuit of new sailboats and the pastimes he enjoyed.

The contrast between the lives of father and son is being presented in a Saint John courtroom where Dennis Oland is being tried for the second-degree murder of Richard Oland on July 6, 2011.

Crown prosecutors have told the trial, before judge alone, they believe financial stress was at the heart of the bludgeoning death of the 69-year-old multi-millionaire.

The prosecution case is that 50-year-old Dennis Oland killed his father “in a rage” following a disagreement over money.

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Robert McFadden, an accountant and long-time business associate of Richard Oland, was on the stand Thursday, where he gave the trial a picture of the victim — a man he had known and worked with since 1980.

McFadden said Richard Oland’s holdings were worth about $36 million at the time of his death and he was the owner and sole director of three companies dealing with investments and real estate.

The accountant said he arrived at Oland’s office in uptown Saint John at around 9 a.m. on July 6, 2011.

“We had a meeting planned with some insurance fellows who wanted to sell a life insurance policy to Richard,” McFadden said under questioning from prosecutor P.J. Veniot.

Oland, he said, already had a life insurance policy worth about $8 million. The beneficiary was his investment company, the Far End Corporation.

McFadden said the rest of the day following the insurance meeting was “unremarkable.” He said Oland had just returned from a sailing trip followed by an eight-day fishing trip “so he wanted to get caught up on his mail.”

McFadden told the court that Oland was having a new sailboat built in Spain. He also had a boat built in New Zealand several years earlier, but now wanted a newer boat.

The accountant told the court about travelling with Oland “to scout out sailboats.”

“I also travelled with him for races in the United States and the Caribbean.”

Banking officials from CIBC also were on the stand Thursday detailing lending activity involving Dennis Oland.

Oland had increased a $75,000 line of credit he was given in 2010 to $163,000 in March 2011.

Richard Oland gave Dennis $538,000 in 2008 and 2009, when the younger Oland was going through a costly divorce.

The trial has heard that Oland was paying interest on that money from his father at the rate of about $1,600 a month. Shortly before visiting his father on July 6, 2011, Oland’s cheque for one of the interest payments had bounced.

Dennis Oland is the last known person to have seen his father alive. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder.

Chris Morris, The Canadian Press