Fraudster allegedly ripped off the new boss to pay off the old boss
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Slick fraudster Jacqueline Vignavong allegedly stole more than $100,000 from her new boss Peter to pay back ex-boss Paul, say police.
The 35-year-old Toronto woman was in court April 6, facing fresh allegations she siphoned $111,000 from her latest victim Wiseacre Inc., an entertainment prop rental company, between February 2018 and April 2019. She was fired last April.
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When she landed that Wiseacre job in January 2018, she was on released on an undertaking and facing charges that she pilfered $126,000 from her former employer, Entertainment One, a large, Toronto-based Canadian film distribution company. She worked as distribution co-ordinator from October 2014 to Oct. 2017.
She admitted she took E-One to the cleaners when she pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 in November 2018. She paid back her stolen cash to her employer over the next 12 months.
Her job entailed looking for and paying out third-party media companies who would work with E-One.
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While doing her legitimate job, she forged invoices and received cheques and wire transfers totalling $129,006, depositing the monies into her shell company called Cinematik. No work was actually done.
She lost her E-One job due to restructuring in 2017, but her larceny was soon discovered.
In Nov. 2019, Justice Harvey Brownstone was so impressed with Vignavong’s remorse that he imposed a 90-day sentence to be served on weekends. It was much lower than the six-to-nine month jail term the Crown sought.
The sentence is lenient for a sophisticated fraud perpetrated by someone in a position of trust over years, especially when the crime went undetected and the culprit never owned up early, said a source.
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Within a month of being charged in Dec. 2017, Vignavong rebounded and landed a job with Wiseacre Inc., a show business prop rental company in Etobicoke. Wiseacre provides set props ranging from a New York subway station set to mechanical horses to massive chandeliers.
A month later, police alleged, Vignavong was making false invoices and cashing in. These allegations — unlike the admissions in the E-One case — haven’t been proven in court.
“She’s a professional who used three methods, intercepting e-transfers, fraudulent cheques or pocketing cash and wiping out the invoices,” said a source.
Investigators alleged she forged approximately 40 invoices and funnelled those payments to Cinematik Media, which remains a registered company.
The total fraud, alleged is $111,029.40 — almost equal to what she repaid in restitution for the first fraud, say police.
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