John Lefebvre (born August 6, 1951), is a Canadian musician, composer, entrepreneur, retired lawyer and philanthropist. He is currently active as an author and activist on climate change issues. In 2017 Lefebvre published his first book, All's Well - Where Thou Art Earth And Why, a work of political, moral and legal philosophy.

Neteller platform and imprisonment

Lefebvre first garnered public attention in 1999, when he was involved with

Neteller Neteller is a global payments platform and digital wallet used to transfer money to and from merchants, such as forex trading brokers, social networks, and gambling websites. Users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom can ...

(now known as

Paysafe Paysafe Limited (formerly known as Optimal Payments PLC) is a multinational online payments company. Paysafe offers payment processing, digital wallet and online cash systems to businesses and consumers, with particular experience of serving t ...

), an online money transfer facility. The firm's involvement in transactions serving the

online gambling Online gambling (also known as iGaming or iGambling) is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos, and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for th ...

industry led to U.S. charges of money laundering, racketeering, running an unlicensed money transmitting business and promoting illegal gambling. He was arrested in January 2007 and pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to promote illegal Internet gambling transactions. He agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, and the court ordered his company to forfeit $140 million. Lefebvre and his founding partner forfeited $100 million personally between them. He ultimately served 45 days in federal prison in the Southern District of Manhattan.

Music career

In 2007, Lefebvre composed and recorded a double CD album entitled ''Psalngs'' with the help of the record producer Brian Ahern. This was John's first effort as a solo artist. Ahern gathered a

skookum Skookum is a Chinook Jargon word that has been in widespread historical use in British Columbia and the Yukon, as well as the Pacific Northwest. It has a range of meanings, commonly associated with an English translation of ''strong'' or ''monstr ...

studio band for the album, which included

Jim Keltner James Lee Keltner (born April 27, 1942) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. He was characterized by Bob Dylan biographer Howard Sounes as "the leading session drummer in America". Howard Sounes. ''Do ...

Hutch Hutchinson James "Hutch" Hutchinson (born January 24, 1953) is an American session bassist best known for his work with Bonnie Raitt. Though his work takes him nearly everywhere he primarily resides in Studio City, Los Angeles, California, and Haiku-Pauw ...

Greg Leisz Gregory Brian Leisz ( ; born September 18, 1949) is an American musician. He is a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He plays guitar, dobro, mandolin, banjo, lap steel and pedal steel guitar. Biography Leisz grew up in the garage ba ...

, Patrick Warren,

Dean Parks Weldon Dean Parks (born December 6, 1946) is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas. Parks has one Grammy nomination. Albums Parks was member of the North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los A ...

Al Kooper Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt; February 5, 1944) is an American songwriter, record producer, and musician. Throughout much of the 1960s and 1970s he was a prolific studio musician, including playing organ on the Bob Dylan song " Like ...

Matt Rollings Matt Rollings is a Grammy Award-winning American composer, keyboard player and record producer. Known mainly for playing in Lyle Lovett's Large Band, Rollings has worked with many artists, not all country. Rollings won the 'Best Traditional Pop ...

and

Mac McAnally Lyman Corbitt McAnally Jr. (; born July 15, 1957), known professionally as Mac McAnally, is an American singer-songwriter, session musician, and record producer. In his career, he has recorded ten studio albums and eight singles. Two of his sing ...

. The players regrouped with Lefebvre and Ahern in the spring of 2010 to record Lefebvre's second solo effort, ''The Initial Album'', released in 2010.

News analysis and political activism

Lefebvre and James Hoggan are co-founders of the DeSmogBlog.com group of blogs, which focus on topics related to

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

. The site's self-described purpose is to expose "global warming misinformation campaigns." Lefebvre is among the blog's most active commentators, in addition to substantial writing in other forums including social media.

Philanthropy

From July 2009 to July 2011 Lefebvre served as a director of the David Suzuki Foundation. At that time both Suzuki and Lefebvre resigned from the board of DSF to found the David Suzuki Institute (DSI), which is not a tax deductible charitable organization, and thus is more free to express political opinions. He is also a continuing supporter of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, a Vancouver-based institution focused upon the teachings of Dalai Lama and "education of the heart."

References

External links

www.Psalngs.com

www.johnlefebvre.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lefebvre, John Living people 1951 births Canadian male singer-songwriters Canadian singer-songwriters Canadian guitarists Canadian businesspeople Canadian non-fiction writers