Three owners of a Calgary restaurant have been sentenced to jail time for defrauding temporary foreign workers they employed, exploiting their vulnerable immigration status for financial gain.
Exploitation and Threats Revealed in Court
Justice Sandra Mah of the Calgary Court of Justice handed down the sentences on Monday, agreeing with Crown prosecutor Brandy O’Ferrall that incarceration was necessary. The judge highlighted multiple aggravating factors, including that the offenders threatened to send the workers back to India if they did not pay thousands of dollars in bogus government fees.
The convicted individuals are Maninkandan Kasinathan, 39, Chandramoahan Marjak, 48, and Mary Roche, 54. They were partners in the Marina Dosa Tandoori Grill and were found guilty of fraud in May of last year.
The Fraudulent Scheme Unpacked
The trio hired three men from India to work as cooks in Canada. After the workers arrived, the owners falsely informed them they were required to pay $24,000 each for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) and related government immigration fees.
In reality, under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, it is the employer's responsibility to pay a $1,000 processing fee for the LMIA document. The workers, reliant on their employers for their jobs and legal status in Canada, felt they had no choice but to pay.
Parthiban Ramalingam, who came to Canada in 2017, paid the full $24,000. He eventually reported the payments to the Canada Border Services Agency and police after receiving an open work permit. Two other victims, Venkatesan Durairaj and Vijayasankar Krishnan, made partial payments of $12,000 and $8,000 respectively. The total fraud amounted to $44,000.
Sentencing and Consequences
While the Crown sought nine-month jail terms, Justice Mah imposed 90-day intermittent sentences, to be served on weekends beginning January 30. Each offender must also serve 18 months of probation with conditions that include no contact with the three victims.
A key component of the sentence is a restitution order for the full $44,000 to be repaid to the defrauded workers. Justice Mah emphasized the breach of trust, noting the victims' dependence on the offenders for their ability to remain and work in Canada.
"The victims understood if they did not pay the money they were at risk of losing their job," Mah stated, underscoring the power imbalance and coercion involved in the crime.
Defence lawyers Faizan Butt and Sofian Butt had argued for community-based conditional sentences, but the judge ruled that the seriousness of the exploitation warranted actual jail time.
