Ontario bureaucrat Sanjay Madan $47m fraud = 10 years

Sanjay Madan has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges of fraud, breach of trust and money laundering. Madan was fired in Nov 2020 from his $176k job as director of the Ministry of Education’s iAccess Solutions Branch after his fraud surfaced. He owns Newgen Ventures Inc. a company registered in Panama that owns millions in real estate, all of which was listed for sale. His assets include a seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom house in North York, six Toronto condominiums, and more than $1m from the sale of another home. Madan holds Canadian and Indian passports as well as permanent residency status in Panama, a tax haven with no extradition treaty with Canada. His lawyer claimed he had mental issues.

Sons of Sanjay Madan sued Ontario for $1m in “psychological” damages. Chinmaya Madan, 27, and Ujjawal Madan, 24, claim the government’s “allegation of conspiracy” against them is “preposterous” and “has been advanced recklessly and maliciously.” Chinmaya Madan was a product manager who resigned in July 2020 while brother Ujjawal Madan worked under their father.

The province says some or all of Madan, his spouse, Shalini, their sons, and Madan’s associate Vidhan Singh perpetrated a massive fraud exceeding $21m. Sanjay Madan received $10m in secret commissions for steering government contracts to companies he or Vidhan Singh controlled. Madan and his family opened more than 400 accounts at the Bank of Montreal. They deposited more than 10,000 cheques made out to fictitious people with non-existent children under the Covid support program. In a statement of defence Madan blames the province for lax security that allowed “widespread misappropriation” of taxpayer funds.