Executives at a Waterloo firearms distributor have been accused of orchestrating a $48-million fraud scheme
The funds were allegedly used for personal luxury purchases
Waterloo Regional Police say they’ve uncovered a $48-million Ponzi-style fraud scheme involving an area firearms distributor, Trigger Wholesale Inc., whose customer base purportedly includes Canadian government agencies and law enforcement organizations.
Detective Constable Mike Payne told reporters yesterday that the accused parties include the company’s president, an owner, its chief financial officer and its chief operating officer.
According to police, between 2016 and 2020, the group of executives allegedly fabricated business agreements in order to secure funding from their lender. Those funds were allegedly used to make personal luxury purchases.
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“Investigators determined that the suspect company submitted more than 19,000 fraudulent invoices for goods allegedly sold to major retailers,” Payne said at yesterday’s press conference, according to CTV News Kitchener.
They are also alleged to have maintained fraudulent records of shipping and delivery transactions, altered firearms inspection reports and maintained fake email domains as well as voice technology used to impersonate legitimate companies.
Four people have been charged in connection to the alleged fraud. Police haven’t released their names, but have identified them as a 52-year-old man and 48-year-old woman who formerly lived in Waterloo but now reside in London. Also charged are a 56-year-old man from South Frontenac and a 64-year-old man from Guelph.
Charges include fraud over $5,000, forgery, uttering forged documents, falsification of business documents, possession of property obtained by crime, laundering proceeds of crime and identity fraud.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
