Man pleads guilty to fraud over $5K

A Georgian national with alleged ties to Russian organized crime has pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 for defrauding Saskatchewan's Ministry of Social Services on May 14, 2023.

Alexander Alexidze, 49, entered the guilty plea on Tuesday in Saskatoon provincial court. The fraud amount hasn't been disclosed.

A sentencing date is expected to be chosen on Thursday.

Alexidze also pleaded guilty to procuring a document with another person's identity, possessing multiple credit cards knowing they were obtained by crime, possessing a 2019 Chevrolet Malibu knowing it was obtained by crime and possessing a citizenship card for a fraudulent purpose.

The offences are also from May 14, 2023.

Alexidze was charged shortly after that day, when Saskatoon police said they “became aware of a man wanted on warrants and suspected of fraud by several authorities in Canada and the United States to be living in Saskatoon under one of many assumed identities.”

In a news release, police said Alexidze is a “known affiliate of a Russian organized crime group.”

He was arrested at a home in the 400 block of Pendygrasse Road in Saskatoon's Fairhaven neighbourhood that court documents indicate was his residence. Police said they executed a search warrant and seized “multiple false and forged documents.”

On Tuesday, the Crown indicated it would stay a charge of using multiple forged documents in various names at the conclusion of sentencing.

Alexidze's provincial court trial, scheduled to run next month, was vacated after the guilty pleas were entered.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was previously deported from the U.S. to Canada in July 2016 after pleading guilty in an Ohio court to making a false statement, fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents.

Among the documents was a status card and a letter in the name of “John Peters” claiming he belonged to the Teslin Tlingit Council — a First Nation band government in the Yukon Territory.

Through fingerprinting, officials were able to establish that the fraudster was Alexidze — a “Russian national born in the country of Georgia.”

He received two concurrent nine-month sentences. Court documents show he was raised in the Soviet Union and was sent to the U.S. in 1998 because of threats of violence to his family due to his father's political involvement.

With Saskatoon Starphoenix files