Ontario alleges $11-million fraud in COVID support program
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The Ontario government is alleging one of its computer managers, his family members and associates defrauded a COVID-19 program of millions of dollars meant to support parents and children through school closures.
In documents filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Attorney General seeks to freeze the bank accounts and bank deposit boxes of provincial government IT employees Sanjay Madan, his wife, Shalini, and their sons Ujjawal and Chinmaya, as well as Vidhan Singh, Wang and Associates Professional Corp.
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“Sanjay Madan… caused rule changes within the computer application that disabled certain safeguards within the application that allowed him, his family members and at least one other individual to generate thousands of fraudulent Electronic Fund Transfer payment files and direct the payments to their personal and corporate accounts,” the AG’s court filing alleged.
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The family opened up hundreds of bank accounts in the spring, where SFFP funds were deposited, the court documents claim.
Singh also opened multiple bank accounts and the contents were eventually directed to his personal bank account, the documents allege.
An affidavit by a KPMG forensic accountant filed with the courts alleged that 47,600 payments — totalling about $11.6 million — were diverted between May 25 to about June 22, although it was not clear if all those payments were successfully deposited into the related bank accounts.
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None of these statements have been proven in court.
Lawyer Christopher Du Vernet said the family will only make publicly-available comments in material filed with the courts.
“This is a very difficult time for the entire Madan family,” Du Vernet said in an email Wednesday. “Moreover, the matter is currently before the Courts.”
Singh could not immediately be reached for comment.
The SFFP was set up by the Doug Ford government to provide $200 or $250 per child to help defray the costs of learning after schools were closed in the spring.
aartuso@postmedia.com
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