Former Ontario government employee Sanjay Madan in April pleaded guilty to defrauding the province of over $47 million and has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Madan previously served as an IT director within the Ministry of Education. He has taken responsibility for two sets of fraud schemes conducted during his tenure. One of these schemes involved the misappropriation of funds intended for Covid-19 relief benefits, where Madan and his family were accused of illegally depositing checks meant for beneficiaries into their own accounts.
Madan’s defense attorney, Chris Sewrattan, stated that his client pleaded guilty to clear the names of his wife and two sons, who had been implicated in the fraud. By accepting responsibility, Madan aimed to emphasize that the wrongdoing was solely his and not his family’s. Consequently, charges against his wife have been withdrawn, and his sons have not been charged.
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The province had filed a civil claim in 2020, alleging that Madan’s family exploited their positions of employment and unique access to the Support for Families Program and payment processing system. In addition to the criminal charges, Madan faced two counts of fraud, two counts of breach of trust, one count of money laundering, and one count of possession of property obtained by crime.
Apart from the prison sentence, Madan is subject to a restitution order totaling approximately $47.4 million, which includes the $10.8 million that was fraudulently obtained from the Support for Families Program.
Madan has so far repaid $30 million of the stolen money and assets. Once released, he will have five years to pay back the remaining amount. Failure to do so could result in an additional six-year incarceration.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been criticized for the unimaginably long time it took for him to catch on to an obscure bureaucrat who had been stealing tens of millions of dollars, all during the pandemic.
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