A one-time Ottawa janitor found guilty of immigration fraud and bribery will be sentenced Monday after trying to sponsor more than 500 refugees on group sponsorship applications, many of them relying on forged bank letters, doctored documents and sponsors who didn’t have a clue their names were appearing on the applications.
Refugee sponsorship program
Mohamed Farah Abdulle is looking at a possible prison stint of five years or more for the scam that involved applications made between 2006 and 2011 under what is known as the Group of Five (or G5) refugee sponsorship program, where five or more persons commit to sponsor and help support one or more refugee applicants for a one-year period as they settle into life in Canada.
Evasive and unresponsive
In total, Abdulle’s groups had promised more than $2.9 million in bank account trust funds that had been set aside to sponsor refugees. Abdulle denied anything untoward and insisted the applications were above-board, but the judge didn’t believe the “evasive and unresponsive” Abdulle and convicted him.
Read more about the immigration fraud at The Calgary Sun.
