Former Oilers Owner Sentenced To Home Detention

The former owner of the Edmonton Oilers hockey franchise was sentenced today in Riverside to a two-year probationary term — plus six months home detention — for lying on a personal bankruptcy petition filed in 2008.

Peter Hugh Pocklington, 69, pleaded guilty in May to a single count of perjury in connection with the fraudulent filing.

In March 2009, the Coachella Valley resident was indicted on two counts of filing or making false oaths on a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy petition, which could have resulted in a 10-year prison sentence had been convicted at trial.

Under a plea deal reached with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Pocklington admitted to committing perjury, and prosecutors dropped the other charges.

“We’re satisfied with the results,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Lokey told City News Service. “He has now been adjudicated a federal felon. He’s going to be under federal probation for the next two years, and he’s going to have to comply with the probation rules and regulations. If that doesn’t happen, there are going to be consequences.”

Pocklington’s attorney, Brent Romney, was not immediately available for comment.

In addition to home detention and probation, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ordered the defendant to serve 100 hours of community service, pay a $3,000 fine and file new tax returns for the years 2006-2008, Lokey said.

The plea agreement also stipulates that he resubmit a “statement of financial affairs” from his bankruptcy.

“I understand the (bankruptcy) trustee is going to get some assets that were not known about before,” Lokey said.

Pocklington claimed assets of just under $3,000 and liabilities approaching $20 million in his original bankruptcy petition.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged the Canadian national lied about having two bank accounts as well as leasing two storage units in Palm Desert — one of which was air-conditioned — where he kept valuables.

FBI agents learned that to satisfy obligations to one creditor, the defendant gave up artwork, a rug and desk collectively worth $80,000, according to court documents.

Pocklington and his wife, Eva, were living in a single-story home on Running Springs Drive, fronting The Lakes Country Club in Palm Desert, at the time of the investigation, which was initiated after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court trustee in Riverside flagged the defendant’s petition as potentially fraudulent.

The FBI discovered that Pocklington maintained two offshore ventures — Dempsey Investment Corp. and Quincy Investment Corp. — where he held assets in trust, court papers show. He told authorities he had nothing to do with Quincy, but investigators identified him as the principal on a Palm Desert National Bank account in the name of the company.

Pocklington described Dempsey as a charitable trust to benefit his grandchildren.

FBI agents identified the defendant as the de facto owner of an Indian Wells house at 47-111 Vintage Drive, which had been deeded to Dempsey.

Agents did not list a presumed total of the assets believed to be under Pocklington’s control during the bankruptcy proceedings.

“He had some pretty complex financial dealings,” Lokey said, “but I think we’re satisfied there aren’t millions of dollars out there that weren’t accounted for.”

Pocklington owned the Oilers for more than two decades, selling the National Hockey League team in 1998. He raised the ire of fans a decade earlier when he unexpectedly sold star player Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings for $15 million.

Pocklington also dabbled in Canadian politics and owned a grocery store chain that went bust after a 1986 labor strike.

He has resided in the U.S. since the late 1990s.