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Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
PS, in light of the earlier discussion about whether what he did was criminal - if he obtained over $5000 from people by deceit, falsehood or other fraudulent means, it's absolutely a crime, according to the criminal code... In fact, it's punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
However, this is under Canadian law, and the real question is who would assert jurisdiction. Arguably, the fraud took place on CP, whose servers are presumably based in Canada, so it's possible that it should be considered a Canadian crime. But the guy's clearly primarily tied to Florida, which is the basis on which US courts assert jurisdiction, and he was there the entire time he was committing the allegedly criminal activities. As far as the law in Florida goes, well...
In case anyone was actually interested in whether the guy's literally a criminal.
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Both Alberta (presuming that is where the servers are) and Florida could assert jurisdiction. The US federal government could too, conceivably, under a mail/wire fraud claim. I presume that Canada has a similar federal statute.
The issue with prosecuting in Canada is getting extradition (well, it is one of many issues, really), but regardless, even under US Federal law and Florida state law, Ian could be in for a world of hurt if someone wanted to press the issue (whether civil or criminally--although a private party typically can't bring their own criminal action). The punishment for a misdemeanor in Florida is nowhere near as harsh as 14 years in a Canadian prison, but there are plenty of other causes of action available that could make the 14 year option look mighty sweet.