Indo-Canadian gets 10 year jail for stealing $47.4m from Ontario govt
Darpan News Desk IANS, 05 Apr, 2023 11:12 AM
Toronto, April 5 (IANS) An Indian-origin former Ontario government employee has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to stealing $47.4 million from the provincial government, which included $10.8 million of Covid aid.
Sanjay Madan, who served as an IT Director within the Ministry of Education, pleaded guilty to multiple charges of fraud, breach of trust, and money laundering, which he committed by overseeing two complicated schemes to bilk millions of dollars from taxpayers, the Global News reported.
Madan's lawyer Chris Sewratan said he feels "sorry" for his crimes and is taking "responsibility for everything".
Madan has agreed to re-pay the entire amount, $30 million of which, his lawyers say was immediately returned to the Ontario government, while the remainder can be repaid over the next 15 years.
His deception came to light during the Covid-19 pandemic when the government set up the support for students fund to give parents a one-time payment of $200 per child to offset the costs of learning from home during the pandemic.
Madan, who had access to the internal processing portal, siphoned off more than 43,000 support payments into 2,841 bank accounts under his name -- taking $10.8 million from the fund, according to Global News.
Criminal charges were withdrawn against Madan's wife Shalini and their two adult sons as part of a plea bargain, which was designed to serve as a signal that he alone bore responsibility for the fraud.
Madan's lawyer said he pleaded guilty to clear the names of his wife, Shalini Madan, and their two sons whose names were on some of the accounts used to defraud the province.
According to media reports, the Ontario government has successfully obtained an injunction to freeze Madan family's assets in Canada as well as overseas in India.
Totalling $28 million, those assets include six Toronto condos collectively worth $3 million.
Madan's whole family was also employed with the Province of Ontario, though his sons have since resigned and wife was dismissed. The probe into the pandemic funds fraud then uncovered a larger nine-year scheme in which Madan received profits to the tune of $36.6 million.
Madan's lawyer said he apologised to the taxpayers, the Ontario government, his family and colleagues for the crimes.
According to CTV News, after Madan's release from the prison, he has five years to pay back the remainder -- if he doesn't, he could be re-incarcerated for another six years, his lawyer said.
The Liberals said the benefit is intended to provide cost-of-living relief to low-income Canadians. The current benefit is available to families whose household income is less than $90,000 a year and ranges from $260 to $650 per child depending on net income.
The summons applies to CEO Sundar Pichai, as well as Kent Walker, president of global affairs, Richard Gingras, vice-president of news, and Sabrina Geremia, vice president and country manager for Google in Canada.
Conroy says the prospect of a multibillion-dollar surplus similar to last year's budget is not in the forecast. She says that almost $6-billion surplus was an anomaly that allowed the NDP government to announce numerous spending initiatives on health, affordability, infrastructure and housing.
The North and West Vancouver school districts called a snow day for all public schools while Simon Fraser University cancelled morning classes at all its campuses and a statement from Vancouver International Airport says visibility and de-icing of aircraft have been affected by the unexpectedly heavy snowfall.
The suspect who police thought they were arresting was considered armed and dangerous, and potentially in possession of a firearm, so the department's emergency response team was deployed. Police say during the arrest officers shot the man with two rubber bullets.
The request comes in a letter signed by 75 non-governmental organizations, including the Canadian chapters of groups such as Oxfam, Save the Children, Unicef and World Vision. They're asking Freeland to increase international aid funding from the $8.15 billion pledged in the last budget and to gradually ramp that figure up to $10 billion by 2025.
