Toronto police charge 12 in alleged machinery leasing scam
by The Canadian Press
Toronto's financial crimes unit says arrests were made this week, nearly three years after the alleged scheme began flowing money through locales as far afield as Brazil, Hong Kong and Australia
TORONTO—A dozen people are facing 96 charges in what Toronto police describe as a multimillion-dollar fraud scam.
Insp. Peter Callaghan of the force’s financial crimes unit says arrests were made the past week, nearly three years after the alleged scheme began unfolding.
Callaghan says the highly complex scheme involved multiple companies fraudulently leasing machinery, adding that the money involved flowed through locales as far afield as Brazil, Hong Kong and Australia.
He says none of the evidence would have come to light if it weren’t for a 2015 impaired driving arrest.
The man charged in that case was alleged to be carrying seven credit cards, some of which did not bear his name, as well as more than $10,000 in Canadian and American currency.
The man at the centre of that case is one of the 12 now facing charges in the scheme which Callaghan said cost banks more than $11 million.
