Newcomers caught up in fraud

The case of a Regina couple sentenced this week for mortgage fraud highlights vulnerabilities faced by new Canadians who can fall prey to con artists.

Arif Zaheer and his wife Fariha Arif came to Canada from Pakistan in 2002 and 2005, respectively, and have since received their Canadian citizenship. But, in 2009 and 2010 when the crime unfolded, they were still relatively new to the country and were well-placed to be taken advantage of by con artists.

“This issue arose as a result of basically a ring of frauds where newer immigrants were targeted,” the couple’s defence lawyer Brian Smith said in an interview. “(Con artists) were targeting these newer immigrants who weren’t necessarily so familiar with the mortgage process or financial requirements.”

Earlier this week, the couple — neither of whom had a previous criminal record — received conditional sentences of two years less a day, having admitted to the court they turned a blind eye to red flags when offered a chance to purchase two houses.

Crown prosecutor Dana Brule told the court the case came to the attention of the RCMP in 2009, when police identified several individuals in Regina (yet to be located and arrested) committing mortgage fraud by falsifying documents, operating shell companies and acting as “straw buyers” to secure loans for people having difficulty obtaining one — people such as Zaheer and Arif.

Police learned those at the heart of the scam acted as sellers, agents to sellers, buyers, or buyer agents and mortgage specialists.

“What they did is they preyed on immigrants from their ethnic communities who had minimal real estate or mortgage experience, and they received proceeds of the sales or fees from both the seller and the buyer for their time organizing the sale,” Brule said. “Buyers participated in the transactions either by deliberate deceit or wilful blindness.”

In this case, Brule and Smith told the court Zaheer and Arif were wilfully blind when they went ahead with the purchase of the homes.

Brule said banks acted on the mortgage applications upon receiving falsified employment letters and pay stubs, among other documents. While Zaheer and Arif didn’t prepare the documents, they didn’t ask necessary questions, Smith said.

Court heard as part of the case resolution, one of the homes was sold at a loss. The couple was also ordered to pay fines of $10,000 each.

Smith said the scam worked in part by establishing norms, with those within the immigrant community doing business with the con artists because others had done the same. Challenges with the English language and trust also came into play, Smith added.

Some of that trust sprang from the fact the plot’s masterminds shared common cultural experience with their targets.

“People tend to trust somebody from their own community,” said Getachew Woldeyesus, manager of Settlement, Family and Community Services with the Regina Open Door Society. “Usually, people who do want to perpetrate this kind of crime will use somebody from the community to be able to do this ... When (it’s) somebody from your community, you tend to put your guard down.”

Woldeyesus said RODS takes steps to provide information to new Canadians on areas such as mortgages, finances and scams — hopefully preventing similar cases to this one.

“If people don’t have the awareness of this system, it could happen again,” he said.