Immigration Consultant Vipan Datta, His Wife, Ritu, Consultant Kuldeep Kaur And Her Husband, Harnek Singh Pannu Are Accused Of “Payroll Cycling Schemes” Of Collecting Payments From Foreign Workers For Fake Jobs!

The BC government has filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit to seize properties of Indo-Canadian immigration consultants and their spouses, alleging the immigration consultants engaged in fraud whereby they collected money from foreign workers with fake jobs. The lawsuit says that properties owned by immigration consultant Datta and his wife Ritu, consultant Kaur and her husband, Harnek Singh Pannu, should be forfeited to the government as they have been used in “unlawful activities.”And the government wants to keep more than $600,000 seized when the Canada Border Services Agency searched properties in 2020 in connection with its investigation.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff With News Files

VANCOUVER – BC government has filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit to seize properties of Indo-Canadian immigration consultants and their spouses, alleging the immigration consultants engaged in fraud whereby they collected money from foreign workers with fake jobs.

Lawsuit arises after an investigation by the Canada Border Services Agency against consultant Vipan Datta, his wife, Ritu, consultant Kuldeep Kaur and her husband, Harnek Singh Pannu.

The Lawsuit filed by the director of civil forfeiture alleges Abbotsford and Surrey-based consultants have engaged in “payroll cycling schemes” where they created employment records, pay stubs and issued cheques for the fake jobs while taking payments from the foreign workers, reported Postmedia.

The lawsuit says that properties owned by immigration consultant Datta and his wife Ritu, consultant Kaur and her husband, Harnek Singh Pannu, should be forfeited to the government as they have been used in “unlawful activities.”And the government wants to keep more than $600,000 seized when the Canada Border Services Agency searched properties in 2020 in connection with its investigation.

Datta owns Far East Consultants, based in Surrey, where his wife also works, according to the lawsuit. Until Friday afternoon, the company’s website offered information about assistance with work permits and immigration. 

The site went down after Postmedia called for comment on the government’s lawsuit. headtopics.The Abbotsford phone number for one of the other companies named in the statement of claim, CEC Immigration Services, was not working Friday, reported Postmedia.

The government alleges Datta and Kaur are “the operating minds” behind the two companies, as well as a third called Canadian Education and Career Services.

In December, 2018, CBSA started “an investigation into the activities of V. Datta and K. Kaur and their business operations including Far East, CECS Ltd. and CIS Inc. for alleged immigration offences,” the director’s statement of claim said.

It also alleged that since 2017, Datta, Kaur and their companies colluded with “prospective, purported or actual Canadian employers” to get foreign nationals immigration status in Canada through “submitting fraudulent Labour Market Impact Assessments” and then claiming that a foreign worker was needed to fill vacancies. They then charged “foreign nationals for work permits obtained via fraudulent LMIA applications,” reported Postmedia.

When Datta’s former house was searched on Feb. 5, 2020, CBSA investigators found $306,950 and documents, including ledgers “with notes recording payments to/from foreign workers, recruiters and or employers and debts owed” and blank signed employer cheques.

Datta was arrested in a vehicle outside, where another $40,400 and more records were found.

More documents and $262,298 was found during a search of Kaur’s then residence in Abbotsford, as well as records similar to those found at Datta’s house, the lawsuit says.

Kaur was arrested “for misrepresentation, counselling misrepresentation and human smuggling.”

Neither Datta nor Kaur have filed statements of defence in the civil forfeiture case. And neither has been charged criminally, CBSA spokesperson Rebecca Purdy confirmed Friday, reported Postmedia.

During the searches, cash was found in shopping bags, Ziploc bags, bundled in envelopes inside other envelopes, wrapped with looseleaf paper or in elastic bands and marked with sticky notes.

The director alleged that the cash and the properties are proceeds of illegal activity and that “V. Datta and K. Kaur have been members of an organization comprised of more than three persons, inside or outside Canada, which has as one of its main purpose or main activities the facilitation or commission of one or more serious offences,” reported Postmedia.

Courtesy Postmedia