$11.5M from Sturgeon Lake trust helped fund Rath firm’s Tallcree payment: receiver

A court-appointed receiver says Alberta separatist leader Jeffrey Rath’s firm moved $11.5 million from a First Nation trust it controlled to help cover a court-ordered payment it owed to another First Nation client, Global News has learned.

The receiver’s latest filings show that on Jan. 23, 2024, the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation Trust’s bank accounts issued two cheques totalling $11.5 million to RathPC. The next day, the firm moved the money into another RathPC account and commingled it with other funds.

Within a week, RathPC paid $8.5 million into the Alberta Court of King’s Bench, which was deciding whether the money belonged to Tallcree First Nation or its trust, filings show.

Both First Nations retained the Foothills lawyer and his firm, RathPC, to pursue claims against the federal government, resulting in settlements worth tens of millions of dollars. The firm then became trustee of the funds held for beneficiaries, including minors.

In 2017, Rath’s professional corporation, RathPC, collected $11.5 million under a contingency fee agreement with Tallcree after the band settled a $ 57.6 million claim with the federal government. A judge later ruled the payment unreasonable and ordered the firm to repay $8.5 million.

“At each step of this proceeding, our worst fears come true,” says Chief Sheldon Sunshine of Sturgeon Lake. saying the repayment was made by taking money from “the children of our Nation.”

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“It is enraging that he is still being given a platform in this province, and this is hardly being mentioned,” Sunshine said. “This will have a generational impact.”

Rath did not respond to questions from Global News.

The revelation comes as Rath finds himself at the centre of a legal maelstrom. Sturgeon Lake and Tallcree First Nations are each suing Rath and his firm, alleging that RathPC improperly withdrew tens of millions of dollars from its trusts and withheld financial statements that would have revealed the withdrawals.

In July, Tallcree obtained an interim Mareva injunction, which is a court order that freezes a person’s or company’s assets and prohibits a defendant from hiding or moving funds that could otherwise satisfy a future judgment. A final determination of the order is pending.

That same month, the Alberta court also appointed a receiver, financial advisory firm AlixPartners, to trace the funds the First Nations claim are missing.

Global News reported that, around the same time, financial auditor Doane Grant Thornton raised concerns about several withdrawals from the Sturgeon Lake trust in 2024, including two in January, for $9.8 million and $1.7 million.

Rath said the payments were retroactive administrative fees covering 2017 to 2024, according to court documents.

Those two withdrawals, the receiver says, went towards Tallcree’s multi-million-dollar, court-ordered repayment.

Rath has filed four appeals challenging the trustee removal, the asset freeze, the receivership and the receiver’s access to the firm’s records.

Tallcree and Sturgeon Lake’s allegations remain contested and have not been finally adjudicated.

The $8.5-million refund involved a complicated path through RathPC’s accounts.

RathPC first paid the money into court, allegedly using the proceeds of millions transferred from Sturgeon Lake, while Tallcree and the firm disputed whether the refund belonged to the Nation or its settlement trust.

Eventually, on Nov. 5, 2025, the court ordered RathPC to return the money to the Tallcree trust. Instead, 12 days later, court-filed banking records show that the money was quickly converted into $8 million in bullion, plus a $500,000 draft payable to Rath.

From there, the money trail widens. RathPC’s account at Bow Valley Credit Union became the hub for millions of dollars in precious-metals trading, according to the receiver.

Between November 2025 and March 2026, $11.4 million was transferred from the account to purchase bullion in a series of trades, according to the receiver’s court documents.

The sales yielded almost $8 million, resulting in an estimated net trading loss of about $3.25 million due to market fluctuations, the receiver states.

The receiver also identified another $200,971 in physical gold and silver purchases, but says it does not know where those coins are.

It says Rath’s lack of cooperation has hampered its investigation and that it has been unable to interview him about the disputed transactions.

When asked for comment, Rath said he would not respond.

Meanwhile, as the legal battles continue, Rath has remained active in Alberta separatist politics on social media and in interviews, calling for Premier Danielle Smith’s resignation and promoting separatism ahead of the province’s Oct. 19 referendum.