The Toronto Star reports that the Chief Financial Officer of Tyre Stewardship Ontario, Perminder Kandola, is facing two charges of alleged theft of thousands of dollars of TSO funds.
Growing Scandal for TSO
The first charge against Kandola is related to a previous allegation — originally described in a 2016 lawsuit filed against Kandola by the stewardship — that he diverted $346,565 from a tyre importer to a private bank account in the name of “Ontario Tire.”
A second, similar, charge was laid against both Kandola and Frank Fragale, the stewardship’s former director of audit, alleging that $220,149 was diverted from the stewardship.
Fragale’s lawyer, Nader Hasan, confirmed his client has been charged with a “regulatory offence” and would not comment further.
In another case, transactions involving two firms that do business with the recycling program were highlighted.
The common denominator was the stewardship. A wide-ranging audit is looking into the stewardship and its former chief financial officer, Perminder Kandola,
Attention was first brought to Kandola when he bought $69,805.88 in gold bars and the purchase was flagged up by the financial investigation authority FINTRAC.
Another FINTRAC investigation discovered suspiciaous transactions taking place at two small automotive scrapyards.
In one case, the FINTRAC report notes the small firm had almost $12 million flow in and out of its accounts in a recent eight-month period — $2,663,388 of that from the Ontario Tire Stewardship.
The other firm was highlighted in the report because of $1,043,481 in incoming wire payments from a used car and parts company in the United Arab Emirates. It also does business with the tyre stewardship.