Woman Receives Sentence in Million-Dollar Fraud Case

A Quebec court has handed down a sentence to 45-year-old Yuan Wang in a million-dollar fraud case linked to gambling-related scams. Wang was involved in a series of fraudulent activities at various gambling establishments in Ontario and Quebec during the summer of 2018, including the Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort.

In 2018, the Ontario Provincial Police Investigations and Enforcement Bureau's Niagara Investigations Unit, working in conjunction with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, initiated an inquiry into a series of frauds and attempted frauds that occurred at gaming properties in Ontario and Quebec. These incidents bore similarities to previous cases in Alberta and British Columbia.

Wang's scheme included sending a casino a copy of a bank draft from the National Bank of Canada, which the property would verify. An individual posing as a bank employee would then confirm the authenticity of the documents. The funds would be deposited, and the person would subsequently withdraw them from the casino in the form of chips and cash. When the casino later discovered that the drafts were counterfeit, the money had already vanished. In August 2018, Wang submitted a digital copy of a CA$500,000 bank draft to Casino Lac-Leamy in Quebec and proceeded to withdraw the funds. She was arrested in early 2019, along with Daud Srosh from Brampton.

Judge Rosemarie Millar stated that Wang's sentence should align with those given to similar offenders. The court believed that a suspended sentence with a probation order was appropriate. The judge emphasized the need for a sentence tailored to the accused's circumstances and one consistent with the punishment received by a co-accused and another individual involved in fraud.

Wang's defense lawyer, Leonardo Rossomano, pointed out that his client had lost nearly CA$3 million to gambling over five years, and her addiction had significantly impacted her life. Wang had previously enrolled in a self-exclusion program, preventing her from entering Ontario casinos, which led her to Quebec. As part of her sentence, she was ordered to pay CA$125,000 in restitution to the casinos.

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The case highlights ongoing concerns in Ontario's gambling industry, as a recent report revealed over CA$372 million in suspicious transactions at Ontario gaming properties in 2022. This included a case involving more than CA$4 million in cash buy-ins over several years by Branavan Kanapathipillai at Pickering Casino Resort, which raised questions about the source of these funds. Cal Chrustie, a former RCMP investigator with expertise in money laundering and transnational investigations, emphasized the need for thorough investigations to determine the legality of these large cash transactions.