Limo company owner charged with fraud, money laundering

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This article was published 12/03/2021 (1693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man faces 14 fraud and money laundering-related charges, after a 22-month police investigation into alleged use of unauthorized credit card data by a local limousine company.

On Friday, the Winnipeg Police Service said its financial crimes unit was approached in May 2019 by a mobile payment processor that believed one of its merchants had been processing fraudulent transactions through its account, dating to 2018.

Police said the investigation revealed, between July 2, 2018, and Oct. 10, 2019, 23 different customer credit cards were used for more than 90 unauthorized transactions totalling more than $865,000. During that time frame, roughly $1 million, some of it fraudulently obtained, was transferred across bank accounts as a form of money laundering, the WPS said.

“For someone to go through and sort of select their victim, when they’re going to do it, how much they’re going to charge, how they’re going to move their money around, how they’re going to pay bills, how they’re going to receive some of that fraudulent funds for personal use,” WPS Det. Bill Lodge said Friday.

“It takes a lot of calculated time and calculated risk.”

Rupinder Singh Brar, 36, faces 14 fraud and money laundering-related charges. Singh, the owner of the limo company, was arrested Jan. 14, after an investigation that began May 2019 and concluded in February 2021.

Brar has been named despite being released on a notice to appear because the case has already been sworn before the courts.

Lodge said the financial crimes unit is not looking for any other suspects.

Twelve victims were identified by investigators, Lodge said, ranging from independent cardholders, to national and international companies, to a local non-profit organization.

The limousine company, which was not named by police, is still in service.

Lodge said, in his three years with the financial crimes unit, he has only seen around five cases involving similar amounts of money.

“The unfortunate thing for investigators when it comes to fraud, quite often we’ll find out about these things well after the fact, which can be weeks, months, even years later from when the offence was committed,” he said.

“So we may have a better understanding this time next year.”

The number of cyber crimes reported to Winnipeg police has increased each year since 2015, according to Statistics Canada data released at the end of 2020. The majority of those are fraud reports.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_