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 an e-money transfer service used to transfer money to and from merchants, such as forex trading firms, social networks firms. Users in some locations can withdraw funds directly using the Net+ card or transfer the balance to their own ...

(now known as

Paysafe Paysafe Limited (formerly known as Optimal Payments PLC) is a multinational online payments company. The group offers services both under the ''Paysafe'' brand and subsidiary brands that have become part of the group through several mergers an ...

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

online gambling Online gambling 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 the Liechtenstein International Lottery in ...

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 historical use in the Pacific Northwest. It has a range of meanings, commonly associated with an English translation of "strong" or "monstrous". The word can mean "strong", "greatest", "powerful", "ultima ...

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. ''Down ...

Hutch Hutchinson James 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, CA and Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii. ...

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, lap steel and pedal steel guitar. Biography Leisz grew up in the garage band cu ...

, Patrick Warren,

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

Al Kooper Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt; February 5, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, although he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity. ...

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. Matt won the 'Best Traditional Pop Voca ...

and

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

. 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 In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. 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 The Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education is an international charitable organization and education center located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 2005, the center describes its mission as "educate the hearts of childre ...

, 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