Lefebvre Joins Lawrence in Canary-Singing Duet

[Canada Cal, reporting for duty---]

NETeller co-founder John David Lefebvre's acceptance of a plea deal this week in the case brought by the free-thinking individuals at the U.S. Department of Justice was, at the least, no surprise at all. Hamstrung by the prior plea bargain accepted by co-founder Stephen Lawrence a week or so before, Lefebvre quite literally had nowhere to turn. Despite the huge financial penalties likely to be assessed against Lawrence and Lefebvre --- both have agreed to be responsible for the $100 million in fines the U.S. government was seeking --- the two probably have at least something more than that squirreled away for... after.

The plea deal Lefebvre accepted is similar to the one agreed to by Lawrence earlier, in that the charges were reduced to a single count of criminal conspiracy with a maximum five-year sentence. However, it's possible that the two men will serve no additional time at all, and they are free to resume a more normal life. Lawrence was already "restricted" to traveling nowhere other than Canada, the U.S. and the Bahamas pending his sentencing hearing; no doubt Lefebvre faces similar hardships.

Clearly, it's about the money. And in the eyes of Lawrence and Lefebvre, they probably have plenty enough left to live on comfortably for the rest of their lives. The one place they couldn't spend their remaining millions, after all, was behind bars.