A nearly two-year investigation into credit card fraud has wound up with a 36-year-old suspect arrested and charged, say Winnipeg Police.
Investigators from the Winnipeg Police Service Financial Crimes Unit were contacted by a company in May 2019 that provides mobile payment processing who alleged that one of their customers was processing unauthorized credit cards through their merchant account. The complainant said transactions dated back to 2018.
The investigation uncovered an intricate series of fraud and money laundering offences by a Winnipeg based limousine company.
Under the scheme, some customers would be charged significantly more than the regular fare price. In other cases, credit card information from a legitimate transaction would be processed again without the client’s knowledge. Often victims wouldn’t find out until they received a copy of their credit card statements.
Investigators say that between July 2, 2018, and October 10, 2019, 23 different credit cards were used for more than 91 transactions totalling more than $865,000. In that same timeframe about $1 million was transferred between several bank accounts in an effort to launder the money.
Police have identified twelve victims in the scam that include individual clients, corporations, an asset management company, a travel agency, a local non-profit organization and several financial institutions.
On January 14, 2021 Rupinder Singh Brar was charged with fourteen fraud and money laundering offences under the criminal code.
He was released on an Appearance Notice.
© News4.ca 2021
