Kevin Donald Kerfoot
Bob Mackin
The younger brother of reclusive Vancouver Whitecaps FC owner Greg Kerfoot was sentenced to 13 years in jail on July 27 in a Seattle courtroom, in a case prosecuted by the grandson of legendary football coach Vince Lombardi.
Kevin Donald Kerfoot led a cross-border drug smuggling operation in 2005, in which he directed others to trade 41 kilograms of cocaine (bound for Canada) for 20 pounds of escstasy (bound for the U.S.). His subordinates were caught and pointed to Kerfoot as their leader. Kerfoot battled extradition for a decade and U.S. authorities believe he was behind last summer’s attempted murder of one of his subordinates after he served a 54-month sentence.
Kerfoot, 53, pleaded guilty in April in U.S. District Court in Seattle to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and ecstasy. The lead attorney on the case was Vincent T. Lombardi.
Court documents say that although Kerfoot was entitled to contest his extradition in Canada, he was “not entitled to obstruct justice in doing so — and he clearly did.”
“Kerfoot repeatedly suborned perjury, and likely ordered the attempted murder of one cooperating witness,” said the sentencing report.
That was in reference to accomplice Reginald Purdom, who was shot in Kelowna by a cyclist while he drove a car on Aug. 2, 2016. (A sentencing report explains in a footnote that Purdom is no longer using that name and refers to him only as R.P.)
Tyrone Reynolds McGee was charged with attempted murder, but is apparently not cooperating.
The document alleges that Kerfoot ordered the hit in an attempt to silence R.P. during the extradition process.
“According to a later interview, R.P. had fallen back into drug use and drug trafficking, including with Kerfoot. On August 2, 2016 – approximately two weeks after Kerfoot lost his intermediate appeal of his extradition – Kerfoot asked R.P. to go meet with another drug trafficker to pick up narcotics in a parking lot in British Columbia. While R.P. was waiting in his vehicle, a man on a bicycle pulled up next to him and shot him seven to eight times with semi-automatic pistol equipped with a silencer.
“Amazingly, R.P. survived the shooting. He managed to put his vehicle in gear and run down the shooter before he could reload. The shooter also survived and is pending trial in Canada for the attempted murder. According to the RCMP, he has refused to make any statement about whom he was working for, and the investigation is ongoing.
The report said there is nothing in Kerfoot’s background to mitigate the circumstances.
Greg Kerfoot (Santa Ono, Twitter)
“Unlike many defendants who come before this court, Kerfoot appears to have had every advantage growing up. His parents, by his own account, were loving and provided for him. His brother is a wildly successful businessperson, who also provided Kerfoot with many opportunities to make a lawful living. Kerfoot appears to have willfully chosen a life of crime.”
In an unrelated case, Kevin Kerfoot was accused of failing to repay a $115,000 debt last fall. In B.C. Supreme Court documents filed Sept. 23, 2016, Eric Dutcyvich of Port McNeill claimed Kerfoot, who was residing at a house on 105th Avenue in Surrey, and a Langley-based vodka company owed $115,456.64.
Greg Kerfoot, who is believed to be 57, is a software billionaire and BC Liberal donor with houses in West Vancouver and Kelowna. He is a close friend of ex-Premier Christy Clark, who represents a Kelowna riding, but lives in a Dunbar house registered to Kerfoot business associate Nevin Sangha.
Kevin Donald Kerfoot sentencing report by BobMackin on Scribd
