Winnipeg man fined for role in immigration scam

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/10/2023 (752 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man has been fined $20,000 for his part in a scheme to cheat immigrants hoping to make Canada their home.

Avtar Singh Sohi, 42, was set to stand trial Monday, but instead pleaded guilty to one count of misrepresenting or withholding material facts to immigration authorities, an offence under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Eight additional charges were stayed by the Crown.

Court heard the Canada Border Services Agency launched an investigation into immigration consultant Hartar Sohi, Avtar’s brother, and his business, Abroad Immigration, after receiving a tip Hartar was allegedly involved in a scam charging foreign nationals for Labour Market Impact Assessments. The assessments are documents issued by the federal government authorizing an employer to hire foreign workers in cases where there are no Canadian citizens or permanent residents available for the job.

Investigators executed search warrants at Abroad Immigration’s McPhillips Street office in September 2019, as well as Avtar’s West St. Paul home, where they seized a work permit authorizing a woman to work for Avtar as a nanny.

Investigators seized security video showing the woman did not enter or leave the home in the two weeks prior to the execution of the search warrant, Crown attorney Matt Sinclair told court.

“Investigators then did some lifestyle surveillance on (the woman) and observed her attending another place of work during regular work hours and she appeared to be working without authorization at this other place,” Sinclair told provincial court Judge Catherine Carlson.

The woman, at Avtar’s urging, initially lied to investigators, saying she was his nanny, only revealing the truth when confronted with the security video and evidence of her other job.

“It was at this point that she admitted her family had paid Hartar Sohi for the LMIA job opportunity, but after the LMIA had been paid for was told there was no actual job for her,” Sinclair said. “In addition, she was told if she wanted pay stubs to show she had been working for Avtar Sohi as a nanny, she could use them to support an application for permanent residency, but she would have to pay for (them).”

Pay stubs seized from Avtar’s home purported to show the woman had been his nanny for two years, Sinclair said. Other seized documents supported the woman’s application for permanent residency.

In a separate interview with investigators, a family member said the family had paid Abroad Immigration $40,000 for the assessment document.

“Because of the large amount of money that had already been paid, she had already crossed the Rubicon… the family agreed to pay for the additional pay stubs to support her residency,” Sinclair said.

“By creating documents to undermine the immigration system Avtar committed fraud,” Sinclair said. “After the search warrant execution, while Canada Border Services Agency investigated, he attempted to insulate his behaviour by telling (the woman) to continue with the lie.

“This behaviour erodes the trust of our immigration system and must be denounced and deterred. The scheme itself is predatory in its nature to immigrants who have a limited understanding of the immigration system,” Sinclair said.

A bookkeeper interviewed by investigators said Avtar was not an immigration consultant, but “did have some interactions” with immigration clients, including a B.C. man who sent him $35,000 to have his name placed on an assessment document.

While Avtar was not “the main perpetrator” in the scheme, his false representations helped perpetuate it for more than two years, Carlson said.

“A lot of resources had to be used to get to the bottom of what was going on,” she said. “Misrepresentations of this type really facilitate those people being taken advantage of.”

Hartar remains before the court.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca