Crime

One afternoon in 2015, word went out to staff at Peter Nygard’s palatial seaside compound in the Bahamas. A meeting between Nygard and a senior politician had the green light.

A well-oiled machine comprised of staff members who knew what to do when encounters like these were planned sprang into action. Cash was prepared by accountants. Vehicles were readied. The former Canadian fashion mogul was informed it was time.

The massive wooden gates at the sprawling estate named for its owner, Nygard Cay, slowly rose to allow a convoy of cars to leave. Nygard would often meet powerful and influential people in the Bahamas under unusual circumstances.

Iranian-Canadian community leaders and anti-money laundering experts say Canada is failing to police the explosive growth of Toronto-based underground currency exchanges that are laundering drug money, financing foreign terrorist groups, and supporting the Iranian regime.

Kaveh Shahrooz, a lawyer and human rights activist, and Reza Banai, a Toronto businessman and former president of the Iranian Canadian Congress, said details of a Global News investigation into money laundering in the Toronto currency exchanges highlight a crisis that was already recognized in the Iranian community.

What Are Sources Of Iran’s Financing Of Terrorist Groups?

Mohammad Reza Naghdi, deputy coordinator of the IRGC, admitted that Iran has spent billions of dollars in the region over the past 30 years, in an interview with “Studio Negah Yek”, of the first channel of Iranian TV.

Of course, the IRGC’s budget and its financial aid to its allied forces in the region is not clear, but the main income of the IRGC, in addition to its dedicated official budget by the government, is provided from both domestic and foreign sources. The IRGC is currently involved in all economic and financial affairs in Iran and is the owner or shareholder of the largest commercial and economic sectors of the country, while it is exempt from paying taxes, and even the government does not supervise the IRGC’s financial affairs.

The Ontario government has recovered more than $11 million in COVID-19 relief funds that were allegedly stolen, the Star has learned.

As first disclosed two months ago, the money was allegedly embezzled from the $378-million Support for Families program launched by Premier Doug Ford early in the pandemic.

In documents filed with the Ontario Superior Court, the province alleges “some or all of” Sanjay Madan, his spouse, Shalini Madan — who have both been terminated as government computer specialists — their adult sons, Chinmaya and Ujjawal Madan, and associate Vidhan Singh perpetrated “a massive fraud” to funnel some $11 million in payments to hundreds of TD and Bank of Montreal accounts.

Two months after a one-year old boy was killed in a police shooting in rural Ontario, the officers involved have still not spoken to investigators, according to a police watchdog.

Ontario’s special investigations unit (SIU) said that none of the officers who opened fire on a pickup truck on 27 November have agreed to interviews, adding that they had no legal obligation to do so.

“Understandably, there is a pressing public interest in this case, including how the child died and whether it was gunfire from the father or [Ontario police] officers that caused the death,” the SIU said in a statement on Friday, acknowledging growing frustration over delays and criticisms of its opaque investigative process.