Post by anenro on Oct 12, 2015 15:45:41 GMT 4
Huge haul of gold bars still missing in bank-fraud case
Insider who aided scam was never charged or even identified, and the three men convicted insist they did it for mysterious client.
A lawyer, a jeweller and a mortgage broker walk into a courtroom.
They’re convicted of defrauding a bank for almost $2 million to buy kangaroo-stamped gold bars — missing to this day, despite a handsome reward — with the supposed help of an insider who has never been identified.
They maintain their innocence, and blame each other for the scheme. The lawyer is adamant that he purchased the gold on behalf of a mysterious client named Omar Ali, who a judge finds is nothing more than a fictional character cooked up by two of the accused.
The all-too-real story includes a daytime police raid on a Rosedale home in 2011, observed by students at nearby Branksome Hall trying to write their exams, leading to the arrests of a number of individuals.
Last month, Toronto Superior Court Justice Alfred O’Marra convicted lawyer Remy Boghossian, jewelry businessman Raffi Ebrekdjian and mortgage broker Siva Suthakaran of defrauding the Royal Bank of Canada for over $5,000.
The first two men were also convicted of possessing property — the gold bars — obtained by the commission of an indictable offence. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for later this year.
“I am obviously very disappointed with the result at trial and will be pursuing an appeal,” Boghossian told the Star in an email.
Suthakaran’s lawyer, Barry Fox, said his client intends to appeal as well. Ebrekdjian, who represented himself at trial, could not be reached.
The crime dates back to February 2011, when a stolen and forged bank draft from TD Canada Trust in the amount of $1,895,751 was deposited by Boghossian into his law-practice trust account at an RBC branch on Don Mills Rd., according to O’Marra’s ruling.
He then had the funds wired to buy 41 kilograms of Perth Mint gold bullion — many of them stamped with images of kangaroos — from Montreal-based Kitco Metals. Within a day of the purchase, RBC noticed that the bank draft wasn’t legitimate. According to the ruling, Ebrekdjian, his stepson and Suthakaran tried to sell some of the bars to Toronto jewellers.
The Crown’s theory was that Ebrekdjian and Boghossian came up with a phoney client, Ali, who wanted to buy the gold to hide money from his wife, with whom he was in the middle of a divorce.
Suthakaran had an unknown employee at a Mississauga TD branch — known simply as “the banker” in O’Marra’s ruling — steal the bank draft used to purchase the gold, and intercept verification requests faxed by RBC after it received the draft from Boghossian, the Crown theorized.
RBC declined to comment. A TD spokeswoman said the bank “cooperated fully with the investigation of these matters,” and that no employee was ever identified as being part of the scheme or charged.
Kitco helped with the investigation by providing surveillance footage and information obtained through background checks, the company’s president, Bart Kitner, told the Star in an email.
“In this particular case, the account was opened in the name of a Canadian law firm and all the documentation and IDs provided raised no reason for concern,” he stated. “Given the location of the account holder, the validity of the documentation on file, and that funds were received directly from a Canadian bank, the transaction appeared to be completely legitimate.”
At the time of the 2011 arrests, only one of about 75 gold bars had been recovered. Toronto police financial crimes unit Det. Ruth Moran told the Law Times last week that the investigation is now closed, but the bars are still missing.
Toronto police told the Star that the main investigator declined to be interviewed or answer further questions. The Canadian Bankers Association is still offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the gold.
Among O’Marra’s reasons for the convictions were multiple calls and text messages between the three men at the time the gold was purchased that suggested they were in on the scheme.
He also concluded that the client, Ali, didn’t actually exist because his identification documents in Boghossian’s office were clearly fake and Boghossian’s description of the client changed several times.
Boghossian testified that he was “duped” by the others. He insisted that an unknown man, Ali, dropped into his office one day in 2011 looking for help to buy gold, and that the man’s cousin later gave Boghossian the bank draft necessary to make the purchase.
Ebrekdjian testified that Boghossian planned the fraud with Ebrekdjian’s stepson, and that he only agreed to pick up the first order of gold from Kitco because Boghossian promised to reduce an outstanding legal bill. Boghossian denied this, saying “he knew nothing of the arrangements because his client Ali said he would take care of it,” according to the ruling.
Suthakaran’s lawyer argued that his only relationship with Boghossian was as a potential client for an investment in a hotel, and that he was introduced to the lawyer by Ebrekdjian.
O’Marra was having none of it.
“In my view, there is a strong circumstantial case as outlined above from which reasonable inferences can be drawn that all three of the accused acted together to knowingly defraud the RBC,” O’Marra wrote.
Original article:
www.thestar.com/news/crime/2015/10/11/huge-haul-of-gold-bars-still-missing-in-bank-fraud-case.html
Insider who aided scam was never charged or even identified, and the three men convicted insist they did it for mysterious client.
A lawyer, a jeweller and a mortgage broker walk into a courtroom.
They’re convicted of defrauding a bank for almost $2 million to buy kangaroo-stamped gold bars — missing to this day, despite a handsome reward — with the supposed help of an insider who has never been identified.
They maintain their innocence, and blame each other for the scheme. The lawyer is adamant that he purchased the gold on behalf of a mysterious client named Omar Ali, who a judge finds is nothing more than a fictional character cooked up by two of the accused.
The all-too-real story includes a daytime police raid on a Rosedale home in 2011, observed by students at nearby Branksome Hall trying to write their exams, leading to the arrests of a number of individuals.
Last month, Toronto Superior Court Justice Alfred O’Marra convicted lawyer Remy Boghossian, jewelry businessman Raffi Ebrekdjian and mortgage broker Siva Suthakaran of defrauding the Royal Bank of Canada for over $5,000.
The first two men were also convicted of possessing property — the gold bars — obtained by the commission of an indictable offence. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for later this year.
“I am obviously very disappointed with the result at trial and will be pursuing an appeal,” Boghossian told the Star in an email.
Suthakaran’s lawyer, Barry Fox, said his client intends to appeal as well. Ebrekdjian, who represented himself at trial, could not be reached.
The crime dates back to February 2011, when a stolen and forged bank draft from TD Canada Trust in the amount of $1,895,751 was deposited by Boghossian into his law-practice trust account at an RBC branch on Don Mills Rd., according to O’Marra’s ruling.
He then had the funds wired to buy 41 kilograms of Perth Mint gold bullion — many of them stamped with images of kangaroos — from Montreal-based Kitco Metals. Within a day of the purchase, RBC noticed that the bank draft wasn’t legitimate. According to the ruling, Ebrekdjian, his stepson and Suthakaran tried to sell some of the bars to Toronto jewellers.
The Crown’s theory was that Ebrekdjian and Boghossian came up with a phoney client, Ali, who wanted to buy the gold to hide money from his wife, with whom he was in the middle of a divorce.
Suthakaran had an unknown employee at a Mississauga TD branch — known simply as “the banker” in O’Marra’s ruling — steal the bank draft used to purchase the gold, and intercept verification requests faxed by RBC after it received the draft from Boghossian, the Crown theorized.
RBC declined to comment. A TD spokeswoman said the bank “cooperated fully with the investigation of these matters,” and that no employee was ever identified as being part of the scheme or charged.
Kitco helped with the investigation by providing surveillance footage and information obtained through background checks, the company’s president, Bart Kitner, told the Star in an email.
“In this particular case, the account was opened in the name of a Canadian law firm and all the documentation and IDs provided raised no reason for concern,” he stated. “Given the location of the account holder, the validity of the documentation on file, and that funds were received directly from a Canadian bank, the transaction appeared to be completely legitimate.”
At the time of the 2011 arrests, only one of about 75 gold bars had been recovered. Toronto police financial crimes unit Det. Ruth Moran told the Law Times last week that the investigation is now closed, but the bars are still missing.
Toronto police told the Star that the main investigator declined to be interviewed or answer further questions. The Canadian Bankers Association is still offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the gold.
Among O’Marra’s reasons for the convictions were multiple calls and text messages between the three men at the time the gold was purchased that suggested they were in on the scheme.
He also concluded that the client, Ali, didn’t actually exist because his identification documents in Boghossian’s office were clearly fake and Boghossian’s description of the client changed several times.
Boghossian testified that he was “duped” by the others. He insisted that an unknown man, Ali, dropped into his office one day in 2011 looking for help to buy gold, and that the man’s cousin later gave Boghossian the bank draft necessary to make the purchase.
Ebrekdjian testified that Boghossian planned the fraud with Ebrekdjian’s stepson, and that he only agreed to pick up the first order of gold from Kitco because Boghossian promised to reduce an outstanding legal bill. Boghossian denied this, saying “he knew nothing of the arrangements because his client Ali said he would take care of it,” according to the ruling.
Suthakaran’s lawyer argued that his only relationship with Boghossian was as a potential client for an investment in a hotel, and that he was introduced to the lawyer by Ebrekdjian.
O’Marra was having none of it.
“In my view, there is a strong circumstantial case as outlined above from which reasonable inferences can be drawn that all three of the accused acted together to knowingly defraud the RBC,” O’Marra wrote.
Original article:
www.thestar.com/news/crime/2015/10/11/huge-haul-of-gold-bars-still-missing-in-bank-fraud-case.html
