Salesman defrauded workplace of millions: Winnipeg police
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
A salesman is accused of defrauding his former employer, a building product supplier, out of nearly $4.2 million over an eight-year period.
The man registered four fictitious home-building companies, including fictitious employees, between April 2016 and April 2024, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Wednesday. During this time, he used forged cheques to submit about 5,500 fraudulent applications through a rebate program set up by the supplier for participating business clients, the WPS said.
“It’s a large amount of money,” WPS spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said. “We’ve got a person here who was doing this while employed… and took some time to figure out what he was doing.”
Chancy called the fraud “fairly complicated” and “multi-faceted.”
The employee continued to submit rebate applications after he was let go from the job for unrelated reasons in June 2023, police said.
Chancy said he did not have the specifics of how the company became aware of the scheme. After the man was let go, company officials looked into the businesses and employees and realized they did not exist, Chancy said.
“They dug into it a little bit further and realized the large scheme that was uncovered,” he said.
The WPS financial crimes unit started an investigation in October 2024.
A 50-year-old man turned himself in to investigators about a year later, on Oct. 8. He faces charges of fraud over $5,000, forgery and use of a forged document. He was released on an undertaking.
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca