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'Shattered dreams' and greed: How an Afghan-Canadian refugee swindled asylum-seekers out of $1 million

Tom Blackwell  2 hrs ago

 

© Provided by National Post File photo of Afghan refugees arriving at Toronto Pearson International Airport in August.

Like so many others before and after her, Sakia Mojadiddi arrived in Canada 32 years ago dogged by a tragic past.

Most of her family had been disappeared by Soviet troops who occupied her native Afghanistan, one brother executed by pro-USSR government forces before her eyes.

But like all those others, Mojadiddi had the opportunity to start anew in this country, to create “the stuff for a rags to riches novel,” an Ontario judge commented earlier this year.

And it seemed as if she had attained something like that dream, launching a non-profit organization to help Afghan refugees stuck in other countries. Her profile rose and both Hazel McCallion, then mayor of Mississauga, and Liberal politician Omar Alghabra — now the federal Transport minister — appeared in photographs beside Mojadiddi at an event promoting the outfit.

It was all a ruse. Rather than helping her fellow Afghans, the former refugee swindled close to 50 families out of over $1 million — charging fees to help stranded relatives immigrate to Canada and doing nothing with the money except deposit it in her own bank accounts.

Her victims tell heartbreaking stories of losing their life savings, being forced into more danger, not less, and in one case ending up homeless.

The 65-year-old was eventually arrested and this month the Ontario Court of Appeal rejected Mojadiddi’s challenge of a three-and-a-half year prison sentence and $1 million in fines and restitution, handed down after she pleaded guilty to fraud. If anything, the punishment was too lenient for her “egregious” wrongdoing, the court said.

The full story of the woman’s bewildering crime is emerging as many Afghans once again struggle to exit the country, this time fearing a brutal Taliban regime.

“After her horrible plight in Afghanistan and arrival to Canada, the narrative that one would expect to hear is that Ms. Mojadiddi started a new life that was occupied with financial, humanitarian and philanthropic attainment,” said Justice Paul O’Marra in sentencing her earlier this year. “Rather this case is entirely about broken promises and shattered dreams caused by Ms. Mojadiddi’s fraudulent, predacious and greedy actions.”

Three of her adult daughters were also arrested in the case but it appears that those charges have been withdrawn, said lawyer Dan Stein, who represented the mother at the appeal court hearing.

Peel Regional Police, which carried out the investigation, said it could not confirm what happened with the daughters’ charges. The Crown attorney who argued the appeal could not be reached for comment.

Neither McCallion nor a spokesperson for Alghabra could be reached for comment. There is no suggestion either were aware of the woman’s criminal activities.

“I really don’t know what propelled her into this kind of thing,” said Stein about his client. “It is a tragedy, a tragic story, on her end, too.”

According to O’Marra’s ruling, Mojadiddi arrived in Canada with her husband and three children in 1989. Most of her extended family had been rounded up by the Soviets and never seen again; her brother was killed in front of her by soldiers of the USSR’s puppet Afghan government, the judge said.

“These horrors have left her psychologically traumatized for the rest of her life,” said O’Marra.

By the late 2000s she had built a reputation in the Peel region west of Toronto as a humanitarian, focused on the plight of the many Afghans who had fled or tried to flee the country during the Soviet occupation or the bloody civil war that erupted afterwards.

Her group Afghan Refugee Relief (ARR) was incorporated in 2008 and registered as a charitable non-profit in 2010, with ads posted in Canada and other countries promising help for bringing relatives here.

The organization charged fees for filing applications and doing paperwork, but neither Mojadiddi nor any of her daughters were certified as immigration consultants. And, in fact, no applications were ever filed with what is now called Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

When clients complained, she insisted the process had been held up by government red tape or lawyers. If they persisted, she lashed out, said the sentence decision . Mojadiddi “had the temerity” to threaten to call the police on one person who want to come to the ARR office to inquire about his family’s case.

In all, 47 victims — identified only by initials in the ruling — were bilked of just over $1 million over 10 years.

They included a family that Mojadiddi told to leave Afghanistan for Pakistan after they paid her $15,000. They spent years there, grappling with high costs, lack of work and racism. When the father became sick, they wanted to take him somewhere else for medical care but the consultant insisted they stay in Pakistan because a letter would arrive soon from the Canadian consulate, according to a victim impact statement cited in the decision.

“The letter never arrived and their father passed away,” said O’Marra. “When they discovered the fraud, it was ‘overwhelmingly heartbreaking’ and they were ‘devastated.’ They felt that all those years waiting in Pakistan ‘had gone to waste’ and all of their hopes and dreams were shattered.”

Other victims told of shame and deep depression at learning they had been duped, while a family in India that gave Mojadiddi their $50,000 in life savings were left homeless for a year. None of the refugees made it to Canada.

The Court of Appeal upheld the three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, but suggested it could have been stiffer.

“We would not wish anything in these reasons to be interpreted as saying that such a low sentence is appropriate.”

• Email: tblackwell@postmedia.com | Twitter: tomblackwellNP

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