French court clears way for former University of Manitoba law dean's extradition in fraud case
A French court has ruled in favor of extraditing Jonathan Black-Branch, the former University of Manitoba law dean accused of misusing more than $600,000 in university funds, back to Canada.
By Evelyn Adeyemi ·
Jonathan Black-Branch, the former dean of the University of Manitoba's law school, has lost his attempt to block extradition from France to Canada, where he faces fraud charges. A French court ruled in support of the extradition request on Friday.
The 64-year-old is accused of misusing more than $600,000 from the university to cover his personal bills, pay for expensive meals at a members-only club and fund his own education at Ivy League schools.
Black-Branch was arrested in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb just west of Paris, in April under an international arrest warrant. Canada formally issued its extradition request in May.
Three weeks ago, he appeared before the Versailles Court of Appeal to argue against being sent back to Canada. The court reserved its decision until Nov. 6, when it sided with the extradition request. No date has been set for when the transfer will actually take place.
Black-Branch was hired as the University of Manitoba's law dean in 2016 but abruptly left the position in 2020 and moved to Europe while the university was conducting an internal investigation into financial mismanagement. Later that same year, the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom announced him as the new head of its law school, only to reverse course days later and say it would no longer hire him. Black-Branch is originally from England and was called to the bar there in 1995.
In 2023, a months-long hearing by the Law Society of Manitoba found that Black-Branch had committed professional misconduct. The university asked Winnipeg police to investigate potential criminal charges, but by that point his whereabouts were unknown.
The law society disbarred him in 2024 and fined him $36,000. That same year, the university sued him, and a default judgment ordered him to pay nearly $680,000 plus more than $3,000 in costs, along with three per cent annual interest.
The Bar Standards Board for England and Wales has also barred him from practising law there, describing his actions in Manitoba as "blatant and sustained dishonesty."
During his years in Europe, Black-Branch worked as a lecturer at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Germany's largest university, from late 2021 until mid-2025, school spokesperson Christin Eitner told CBC News in October.
He also applied for Swiss naturalization in late 2023, though it remains unclear whether that process was completed. Documents show he accumulated roughly $5.6 million in debt in Switzerland, most of it tied to real estate.
