Disgraced former law dean arrested, facing extradition to Canada: report

Jonathan Black-Branch, the disgraced former dean of law at the University of Manitoba, has been arrested in Europe and is awaiting extradition to Canada on fraud charges, according to a media report.

Black-Branch, who failed to defend himself in a lawsuit filed by the U of M and his disbarment proceedings, was ordered in May 2025 to repay more than $682,000 in misspent expense funds.

Winnipeg police confirmed his arrest and pending extradition, CTV Winnipeg reported Tuesday.

Black-Branch left the university in 2020 amid allegations he had misspent public dollars and schemed to evade oversight while running Robson Hall from 2016 to 2020.

“Accountability is very important to the university and (U of M) intends to pursue all available collection remedies to secure payment of the judgment,” a spokesperson for Manitoba’s largest post-secondary institute wrote in an email to the Free Press following the May ruling.

U of M initiated the lawsuit in summer of 2024 — four years after Black-Branch’s five-year contract was cut short.

A university investigation found he was using public dollars on pricey meals at the Manitoba Club and expensive courses at Ivy League schools to pad his resumé, among other extravagances.

Those internal findings, shared with the Law Society of Manitoba, led to Black-Branch being disbarred in February 2024. He was disbarred a second time in the United Kingdom earlier this year, based largely on the Law Society of Manitoba findings.

“In our view, there is no doubt the respondent’s actions amount to blatant and sustained dishonesty,” reads the disciplinary decision reached by the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service.

“Sadly, we have reached the decision that there are no exceptional factors which would warrant anything other than a disbarment.”

Black-Branch moved to England in 2020, but lawyers for the university speculated in court filings in 2023 that he was residing in Switzerland.

The Free Press reached out to police on Tuesday evening for confirmation of the arrest, but a response was not immediately received.

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca