{"id":672089,"date":"2026-05-15T22:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672089\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T22:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:24:12","slug":"ryan-wedding-case-ontario-jeweller-loses-bail-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672089\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Wedding case: Ontario jeweller loses bail review"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 A man accused of serving as the \u201cde facto bank\u201d for a violent criminal enterprise allegedly helmed by former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding<\/a> will stay behind bars after Ontario\u2019s highest court upheld a decision to deny him bail.<\/p>\n

Rolan Sokolovski filed an application for bail review in March, asking the Appeal Court to consider his recent arthritis diagnosis as new evidence and arguing the judge who denied his release<\/a> made several errors in law.<\/p>\n

Sokolovski, a 38-year-old jeweller and former professional poker player, was among several Canadians arrested last November in a U.S. investigation into a billion-dollar international drug trafficking ring allegedly run by Wedding.<\/p>\n

He is alleged to have played a key role by laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in assets through his jewelry business and securing luxury items for Wedding, who was taken into U.S. custody earlier this year after a lengthy manhunt. <\/p>\n

Sokolovski\u2019s lawyers proposed to have him released under strict conditions including house arrest, electronic monitoring and four sureties. <\/p>\n

But the Appeal Court found no reversible errors in the judge\u2019s bail decision and declined to admit Sokolovski\u2019s arthritis diagnosis as fresh evidence, keeping him behind bars pending an extradition hearing. <\/p>\n

Defence lawyers had argued the application judge had erred in concluding Sokolovski concealed details of his financial situation, but the Appeal Court sided with the judge, saying Sokolovski\u2019s \u201cfailure to provide a credible picture\u201d of his finances gave rise to concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree with the application judge\u2019s conclusion that the applicant\u2019s lavish lifestyle remains unexplained, and the evidence amply supports that he is hiding his finances,\u201d the Appeal Court judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, the risk that the applicant would abscond is, as the application judge concluded, very high.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"This still photo taken from video and provided by the FBI shows Ryan Wedding a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder facing charges related to drug trafficking and the killing of a federal witness is taken off a plane at Ontario International Airport i… This still photo taken from video and provided by the FBI shows Ryan Wedding a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder facing charges related to drug trafficking and the killing of a federal witness is taken off a plane at Ontario International Airport in Ontario, Calif. on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (FBI via AP) <\/p>\n

The Appeal Court judge was also not persuaded that introducing the arthritis diagnosis as fresh evidence would have impacted the outcome of the bail decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this condition is likely painful, there is no evidence that it is debilitating or requires treatment that prevents flight,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

The court further rejected Sokolovski\u2019s arguments that the application judge didn\u2019t give enough weight to the fact that he had opportunities to flee before his arrest and didn\u2019t take them.<\/p>\n

The application judge fairly assessed Sokolovski\u2019s flight risk in the face of serious charges and a potentially lengthy sentence if he\u2019s found guilty, the Appeal Court found.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was previously a possibility has since become a grim reality. The application judge made no error in assessing that this change in circumstances augmented the applicant\u2019s risk of flight,\u201d the Appeal Court judge said.<\/p>\n

The decision comes as a Calgary man also charged in the Wedding case lost his own bid to have his bail ruling overturned this week. <\/p>\n

An Alberta judge had denied bail in February for Allistair Chapman, saying U.S. prosecutors have a strong case against him and releasing him would undermine the public\u2019s confidence in the justice system. The ruling was upheld Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"\"Allistair Chapman 33-year-old Calgarian Allistair Chapman was one of 10 people arrested by federal RCMP over his alleged connection to former Olympic snowboarder and alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding. <\/p>\n

U.S. prosecutors allege Chapman helped arrange the killing of an FBI informant by providing the man\u2019s photo to a co-accused and paying for it to be posted online.<\/p>\n

As the extradition process continues in Canada, authorities in the U.S. are preparing to bring Ryan Wedding to trial.<\/p>\n

The Thunder Bay, Ont., native was arrested in Mexico in January and taken back to the United States, where he was listed among the FBI\u2019s 10 most wanted fugitives.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old former athlete is alleged to have ordered the murders of several people, including a witness who could testify against him in a 2024 narcotics case.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2026.<\/p>\n

Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 A man accused of serving as the \u201cde facto bank\u201d for a violent criminal enterprise allegedly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,713,44,11867,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-672089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-justice","tag-news","tag-ontario-quebec","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}