Alberta to Alaska RR promoter has negative $96 million net worth, accountant claims

The owner of the company that wants to build a railroad from Alberta to Alaska has a net worth of a negative $96 million in Canadian dollars, according to an analysis by a forensic accountant assigned to the Bridging Finance investigation.

Accountant Daniel Tourangeau said his review of Sean McCoshen’s net worth statement, a document provided by Bridging Finance, listed the Alberta to Alaska railroad as a $4 billion asset. But the railroad has not been built and is not an asset.

“Removing this amount from McCoshen’s assets and accepting the other figures on the McCoshen Net Worth Statement, I calculate McCoshen’s net worth to be negative $96,017,596,” wrote Tourganeau in an affidavit submitted to the Ontario Securities Commission.

For the last few years, leading Alaska politicians, including Gov. Mike Dunleavy, have said the railroad is a viable project. The usual pitch is that McCoshen is a wealthy man who has invested $100 million of his own money in making it happen. His investment is proof enough that the project should be taken seriously and is likely to be built, Alaska politicians have said.

The Bridging Finance scandal has upended almost everything claimed by Dunleavy, the Alaska congressional delegation and other leading politicians.

Bridging Finance, which has been placed under the control of PricewatershouseCoopers, lent the money to McCoshen for the railroad project.

David Sharpe, the former Bridging Finance executive at the center of the investigation, said in testimony that the collateral for the loans includes McCoshen’s “personal guarantee.”

Following the receipt of loans, McCoshen made numerous transfers within days to Sharpe’s personal checking account, totaling $19.5 million. Sharpe had first denied getting anything from McCoshen, but after being confronted with records of the transactions said they did not look good, but they were not kickbacks.

“So what collateral did you obtain as part of the loans?” Sharpe was asked in a deposition required by the Ontario authorities.

“We have Mr. McCoshen’s personal guarantee, we have a share pledge with respect to an account at Canaccord. We regard the presidential permit as collateral, the permitting work done as collateral, the engineering, the port deal as mentioned, and the Alaska railway lease,” Sharpe said.

“You said you see the presidential permit as collateral?” Carlo Rossi of the commission asked.

The presidential border crossing permit is the document signed last fall by former President Trump. Sharpe said, in his testimony that he thinks President Biden is in favor of continuing the permit, a conclusion Sharpe reached because Biden has not canceled the permit.

“It’s evidenced by not canceling the project,” Sharpe said. On his first day in office, Sharpe said, Biden canceled a big Canadian project, but he said he wasn’t sure which one.

The Keystone pipeline, Rossi said.

The project would rely on $10 billion in government funding, but that’s not the hard part, Sharpe said.

“They have a port agreement in Alaska as well, so there would be things that you could do, to recover. But we’re keen to see equity come into the project and we like to see that starting this calendar year,” he said.

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