Target of alleged murder plot back on the job
Last Updated: Friday, November 20, 2009 | 3:14 PM MT
CBC News
The co-owner of a chain of laser eye surgery clinics was back on the job Friday after his business partner was charged with plotting to have Russian mobsters kill him, an employee of his Edmonton clinic told CBC News.
Dr. Joseph King performs surgeries at the Edmonton clinic once a week. The offices of Clearly Lasik were closed earlier this week, after King's partner, Dr. Michael Mockovak, 51, was charged with two counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
He appeared Wednesday in a Seattle court where his bail was set at $2 million US. He remained in jail Friday.
Mockovak has pleaded not guilty.
He was allegedly targeting two men in a murder-for-hire plot — King and Brad Klock, a former president of the company who was suing for wrongful dismissal.
Last spring, an employee went to the FBI over concerns that Mockovak wanted to have Klock killed, according to court documents filed in Seattle this week.
FBI tapped informant
The employee became an FBI informant and told Mockovak a story provided by agents that he had a friend with ties to a Russian crime organization in Los Angeles.
It is alleged that Mockovak turned his attentions toward King, eventually asking the informant, who is of Russian descent, to arrange for Russian gangsters to kill King during a family vacation in Australia earlier this month.
Mockovak was arrested after he allegedly passed the informant an envelope with a photo of King and his family, a note with the family's flight information, and $10,000 US in $100 bills.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Clearly Lasik, based in the Seattle area, operates three laser surgery clinics in Canada and others in Oregon, Idaho and Washington state.
According to court documents filed at the time of Mockovak's divorce proceedings in 2007, he claimed to be cash-poor despite owning or co-owning at least three Seattle-area properties.
With files from James Hees
