Top Quisling Faces Legal Music Over First Nations’ Trust Funds

This Week In Annexation I.2

By Gabriel Haythornthwaite, The DNA Report

With 25 days to go until the Smith MAGA ballot in Alberta, The DNA Report is concluding This Week in Annexation with the last of a trifecta of troubling developments for the Trumpy far-Right. This sad episode concerns the hailed leader of the Albertan ‘separatist’ movement, Jeffrey Rath. He is the wheeling-dealing lawyer and co-founder of the Albertan Prosperity Project--the leading force for American Annexation in Canada.

A Song Of Legal Bankruptcy

In the space of less than two months, Rath has landed into more than one spot of legal money bother involving a sum of $160m--all involving financial agreements with First Nations. On September 8th, Global News reported that Rath and his legal outfit, RathPC, are facing litigation from Diriba Investments LLC in regards to an alleged default two years ago on a $109m debt linked to First Nations and COVID-19 lawsuits.

Rath’s dead-head supporters insist he is the victim of a Canadian government witch-hunt to prevent Alberta ‘separation’. However, the Diriba plaintiff is based in Delaware, USA and is seeking collection on money lent, starting in 2018, to RathPC for its legal pursuits in what is known in America as (not-at-all-shady) “litigation funding”.

In this pursuit of Rath’s litigation acrobatics, Diriba is making gob-smacking allegations about his legal firm’s management of the mega-fund agreement, including: not submitting monthly reports or updates on legal case developments; keeping case proceeds secret from clients; ignoring information requests; and failing to make required payments. Diriba has also served a notice of intention to acquire security under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act which alleges that RathPC is an “insolvent person”.

Broken Trust

That undoubted rough day in court came after a summer of legal hot-water for Rath as two First Nations in Alberta pursued financial malfeasance suits. In July, an Albertan judge granted the Tallcree First Nation (TFN) a rare Mareva order which froze $8.5m in assets owned by Rath and his legal outfit to prevent disbursement of allegedly ill-gotten funds.

This PR-trashing dispute follows on a Global News report of a 2021 Alberta court decision which mandated an $8.5m refund to the TFN from a 20-per-cent ‘contingency fee’ (!) charged by RathPC in regards to a $57.6m Treaty 8 settlement with the federal government. In June, another Albertan judge removed Rath as a trustee from the TFN’s settlement trust fund.

The allegations in this lawsuit are similar to those of Diriba in the way of financial statements withheld since 2020 (!) with the additional claim that Rath had charged the Tallcree FN settlement trust fund $6m in 2024 for supposed “administrative costs” and “professional fees”. I suppose mixing up paperwork could get pretty pricey to sort out.

On August 11th, the Edmonton Journal reported another blow to the rich white man as the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation (SLCN) pursued Rath for alleged unauthorized withdrawals while a trustee for a Nation settlement fund to the tune of $12.8m since May 2023. Rath has legally responded saying that almost all of those withdrawals are for “administrative fees”. Again, Rath faces accusations of serially failing to provide required financial disclosures and the SLCN is seeking both a freezing of Rath’s assets and his removal as trustee, a role he has held since 2017.

Ghosts Of Litigation Past

This is not the first time Rath crossed the SLCN for millions in legal charges to the same trust fund. This fund was the result of Rath’s representation of the Nation in a $143m agricultural benefits treaty settlement claim against the feds in 2017 for which he again charged a steep 20% ‘contingency fee’--$28.6m. In 2024, a Court of King’s Bench judge ruled this exorbitant fee was unenforceable, a decision upheld the following year by the Court of Appeal. In total, the SLCN is seeking a $42.4m freeze of Rath’s multiply besieged assets.

In what appears to be something of a vocation for Rath’s legal career, this summer’s litigation claims are the latest in a string of court scraps with First Nations. Rath has been embroiled in litigation with three Nations since 2013, all around legal fees charged by his firm:

1) In 2025, the Mikisew Cree First Nation won a court appeal against two ‘contingency fees’ Rath levied for “annuity and education” claims.

2) In 2014, the Sweetgrass First Nation sued Rath for what they alleged were high hourly charges which resulted in a reduction awarded to the Nation by the Albertan courts.

3) In 2013, Rath sued the Stoney Nakoda First Nation in Alberta over an invoice of claimed services. He lost that one, too.

Political Fallout?

The combination of First Nations, federal treaty mega-settlements and an Albertan lawyer prominent in anti-native ‘separatist’ politics makes a particularly interesting and sordid affair for The DNA Report to follow. Considering the record above which shows that Rath is zero-for-five in his lawsuit battles with First Nations and has been put potentially on the litigation hook for $160m, this journal highly recommends no one ever engages RathPC’s legal services.

Governor Danielle Smith might not be too unhappy with Rath’s legal woes. Perhaps now the ‘separatist’ lawman will be too busy in court to crash the next UCP conference as he did this past November. At the first day of this conference, Rath set the political tone for the UCP by grandstanding for Albertan ‘independence’ for which he drew a standing ovation. Smith’s attempt to curry favour with the party faithful with her oily pipeline MOU with banker-PM Mark Carney drew loud boos.

The Trump cabal might also be wondering what they are doing with a guy like Rath in their corner. Starting as an open advocate of the American Annexation of Alberta on a March 2025 Fox News program, Rath has since publicly boasted of three separate meetings with US State Department Officials in that same year. At one of these meetings, Rath claims to have secured a pledge for a half-trillion dollar line of credit from the US Treasury for a breakaway Alberta.

None of these mega-dollar legal claims seem to have dimmed Rath’s appetite for public notoriety in pushing Governor Smith’s pre-annexation referendum on October 19th. In fact, Rath made it clear in a September 18th interview with CBC that his far-Right movement is “never giving up” on the issue.

There we have it, straight from the annexation horse’s mouth. The Smith MAGA ballot is only the beginning of the war over the future of Canada.

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Gabriel Haythornthwaite is a former labour-allied school board trustee in BC and currently advises First Nations around political and intergovernmental relations. He is also a leftwing writer and political organizer.