Corporate Fraud
Barrie man charged with $56 million Ponzi scheme involving debit card terminals
Barrie (September 16, 2020) – The OPP charged the Barrie man, Charles Debono, with fraud, bribery, money laundering, and forgery for an alleged $56 million Ponzi scheme, which supposedly defrauded hundreds of victims over six years. The ‘landmark international fraud...
Toronto counterfeit operation dismantled
Toronto (September 3, 2020) – The Toronto police dismantled a counterfeiting operation and arrested a Toronto man during a search warrant on September 1. Onis Belleus is now facing forgery and fraud charges. He is accused of using the forged documentation to support...
ASC: Two Alberta residents engaged in Bluforest pump and dump scheme
Calgary (August 31, 2020) – The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) announced that they found that Cem (Jim) Can and Charles Michael Miller engaged in a fraudulent pump and dump scheme using the carbon-offsets marketing company Bluforest Inc. while breaching Alberta...
Former NB deputy attorney general arrested in GTA for fraud
Fredericton (August 28, 2020) – Peel police arrested disbarred lawyer and former New Brunswick deputy attorney general, Yassin Choukri, for fraud on August 26. He was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant by the Fredericton police on eight charges of fraud. Choukri is...
Appeal Court reduced Waterloo fraudster’s sentence
Toronto (August 27, 2020) – The Ontario Court of Appeal reduced the sentence of the convicted fraudster, Daniel Reeve, to ‘time served’. In 2018, the former chief of DPR Financial Inc. was convicted of fraud over $5,000 to 14 years in prison – the maximum sentence for...
Winnipeg man sentenced for immigration fraud
Winnipeg (August 24, 2020) – Winnipeg Provincial Court handed down the sentence on August 21 for Vladimir Bibilov in an immigration fraud case. The court found that the Winnipeg man acted as an unauthorized immigration consultant and fraudulently collected fees from...
Toronto couple charged in cosmetics Ponzi scheme targeting Filipino community
Toronto (August 18, 2020) – Toronto police arrested a man and a woman for an alleged cosmetics Ponzi scheme on August 12. Glenda Esteves (45) and Teddy Lee Esteves (44) from Toronto are accused of defrauding people from Toronto’s Filipino community out of more than...
Former financial planner charged for multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme
Calgary (August 17, 2020) – Alberta RCMP announced that they laid charges against former financial planner with Espoir Capital, Vernon Fauth, for conducting a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme between January 2012 and July 2015. The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC)...
Brampton man arrested in taxi debit card fraud investigation
Toronto (August 10, 2020) – The Toronto police arrested Harjoban Nahal, a taxi-driver from Brampton, as the result of a five-year taxi debit card fraud investigation. The police accused Nahal of switching his costumers’ debit cards after they paid the taxi fare and...
Lanark County man facing 57 charges in used vehicle sales fraud
Ottawa (August 5, 2020) – Lanark County OPP laid 57 fraud related charges against the former business manager and used car salesman, David Lamothe. Four years ago, the police received multiple complaints against a used car store close to Ottawa related to alleged used...
Fraud charges laid against Grimsby store owner
Grimsby (July 30, 2020) – Niagara Regional Police arrested Grimsby store owner for fraud. Following a complaint, police launched an investigation into the local convenience store, Milk N Things. On July 29, officers executed a warrant and seized products bearing...
Ontario men charged for illegal stock sales by U.S. regulator
Miami (July 16, 2020) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused three men of defrauding investors out of more than US$1.9 million in illegal stock sales in connection with Arizona-based wind turbine company, Thunderbird Power Corp. The U.S....
Casting a light on elder financial abuse on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
June 15, 2020 – Elder abuse is a serious and growing problem. June 15 is the ‘World Elder Abuse Awareness Day’, which provides an opportunity for communities to promote a better understanding of the abuse and threats that older persons are facing by raising awareness...
OSC found Quadriga’s mysterious collapse was due to fraud
Toronto (June 12, 2020) – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) found out that the cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX collapsed in 2019 due to a fraud committed by its late founder Gerald Cotten, according to an investigative report published on June 11. When the...
Surrey accountant banned for his role in real estate marketing scheme
Vancouver (June 8, 2020) – Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) banned Surrey accountant, Vasant Pragjibhai Patel, for his part in a high-profile real estate marketing scheme, for which he allegedly obtained $425,000 in commission. A hearing panel of the...
Five B.C. residents allegedly involved in US$15 million pyramid Ponzi scheme
Vancouver (May 28, 2020) – The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) accused five B.C. residents of helping to promote a U.S. based Ponzi and pyramid scheme in connection with fake gold mining operations. Monita Hung Mui Chan, Sabrina Ling Huei Wei, Justin...
Facebook agrees to $9.5 million settlement over misleading privacy claims
Gatineau (May 26, 2020) – Facebook agreed to pay a $9.5 million penalty over a federal probe into misleading privacy claims. A Competition Bureau investigation found that the social media giant made false or misleading claims about the privacy of Canadians’ personal...
COVID-19 scams exploiting government funding programs such as CERB
May 22, 2020 – Many Canadians are experiencing financial hardship as a consequence of the current pandemic. The Canadian government launched the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to help out Canadians throughout the Coronavirus crisis with a multi-billion...
BCSC longest-ever sentence for Venezuelan hedge fund investment fraud
Victoria (May 15, 2020) – A B.C. Provincial Court convicted James Warring Minnie, a.k.a. Terry James Minnie, for a Venezuelan hedge fund investment fraud and imposed the longest sentence ever resulting from a British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) criminal...
B.C. tech firm settles scam allegations for US$6.75 million
Victoria (May 7, 2020) – The B.C. e-commerce company, RevenueWire, reached a deal with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in connection with tech scam allegations. The Victoria-based company and its CEO, Roberta Leach, agreed to pay US$6.75 million to settle...
Man wanted for rental fraud in Toronto
Toronto (May 6, 2020) – Toronto police are looking for the 37-year-old man, Sungjin Kim, for multiple counts of fraud in connection with a rental fraud investigation. He allegedly defrauded 20 people while collecting first and last month’s rent for a room in Toronto,...