Sentencing arguments for two men who were as creative in cooking their company's books as they were in staging world-class musical theatre began Monday in a Toronto courtroom.
Last month, their sentencing hearing got delayed as the judge was waiting for a jury to render its verdict in a different case.
Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb, co-founders of Livent Inc., were found guilty in March on two counts of fraud and one of forgery.
The maximum sentences for those offences are 10 years and 14 years respectively.
Crown prosecutor Alex Hrybinsky asked for a sentence of between eight and 10 years for the two, calling it an enormous fraud. He also said Drabinsky and Gottlieb have shown no remorse.
The two men had been accused of telling their accounting staff to brighten up the profit picture by not recording expenditures properly.
At trial, the Crown said the inflated profits helped encourage investors and lending institutions to contribute more than $500 million to Livent, which was founded in 1993 and was sold in 1998 to former Disney executive Michael Ovitz.
Under Drabinsky's and Gotlieb's leadership, Livent staged major hits such as "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Show Boat."
In finding them guilty, Justice Mary Lou Benotto were so devoted to the continuation of Livent that they directed the falsification of the financial statements in order to continue the flow of money to the company.
"They were deceitful, they perpetrated a falsehood and reasonable people would consider them dishonest," she said.
Defence lawyers Edward and Brian Greenspan asked for leniency in their sentencing submissions on Monday.
They filed letters of support from high-profile individuals such as Toronto businessman Gerry Schwartz, along with family members and theatre professionals.
In Drabinsky's case, they argued his post-polio symptoms should be taken into account in determining his sentence.
Benotto is expected to reserve her sentencing decision.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Chris Eby and files from The Canadian Press
