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Criminal charges were withdrawn against Madan's wife Shalini and their two adult sons as part of a plea bargain, which was designed to serve as a signal that he alone bore responsibility for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.
Search and rescue crews were notified when the victims were reported overdue and their bodies were later recovered from the scene of the avalanche. Avalanche Canada says the area of the slide was highly wind-affected, leaving some parts of the slope thin and rocky, while other sections had up to 130 centimetres of snow.
It's the largest one-year drop in the rate since 2000, but one in eight children were still living in poverty, and the report says rates were "dramatically higher" among children living on First Nation reserves and those who recently immigrated.
The federal government has offered to match up to $10 million in donations to the Canadian Red Cross for their partners on the ground to help people who are suddenly homeless. Conservative, Bloc Québécois and New Democrat MPs want to see that expanded to include other groups, an idea that is supported by at least one Liberal MP, Sameer Zuberi.
Saad Zora says his twin sister Samar was found earlier today by searchers as an excavator dug through pieces of a five-storey building in the city of Antakya. He said, "Samar was found," and added, "she didn't make it."
Three separate objects were blown out of the sky in as many days over the weekend, a flurry of close encounters that followed what U.S. officials say was a Chinese surveillance balloon that floated across the continent two weeks ago.
The proposal to hear from the grocery leaders came from NDP MP Alistair MacGregor, and it received unanimous support from Liberal, Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs. Executives from all three companies, as well as Save-On-Foods, have testified at past committee meetings focused on the rising cost of food — but not their CEOs.
