In 1992, he pleaded guilty to 42 counts of fraud in relation to defrauding five Canadian banks out of $67 million.
[2] After being disbarred, Melnitzer became a prominent legal affairs writer and as of January 2021, has bylines in the Financial Post.
[1][3] Melnitzer was a successful and high-profile lawyer in London, Ontario,[4] when he began a scheme to print fake stock certificates to be used as collateral to get loans from major Canadian banks.
He was caught when an officer at National Bank of Canada became suspicious and asked for an inspection of the certificates.
[6] Future London MPP Chris Bentley was an articling student at Melnitzer's firm.