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SISO fraud sentences handed out

The two SISO executives found guilty of fraud over the summer were sentenced Monday. The service was once considered a jewel of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, helping thousands of immigrants and refugees settle into life in Hamilton. But it was shut down after the federal government found a $2.9 million fraud. Lisa Hepfner covered the trial of Robert Salama and Morteza Jafarpour and she was at John Sopinka Courthouse for their sentencing and has the story.
The courtroom was full of Morteza Jafarpour’s friends and family. They were upset at the former Executive Director’s conviction, but grateful he was sentenced to just two years, the low end of what his lawyer was asking for.
Marjan, a friend of Jafarpour said: “He is a role model, if anyone thinks he was part of this gigantic fraud, it was not true.”
Dean Paquette was Jafarpour’s Lawyer: “He’s a doctor, he’s well educated, I like him, I think he has demonstrated in the past that he has volunteered his time, consistenly made commitments to immigrants and refugees in the community and I suspect he’ll continue to do so.”
Robert Salama, former Financial Director, had no lawyer during trial but SISO employees who attended the trial felt sorry for him, and passed a hat to come up with enough to pay a lawyer for sentencing. He got 18 months, but after time served will spend just one more day in jail.
Salama’s Lawyer was John Abrams: “He’s always seemed to be a very down to earth person. I didn’t get any evil vibes off him.”
The judge said both accused knew they were sending false documents to Citizenship and Immigration, SISO’s main source of funding. He said Salama’s motive was financial, he took about a thousand dollars a week on top of his salary. But he said Jafarpour’s motive was to make SISO grow.
Paquette: “He did not benefit personally, financially. His benefits went to SISO, which they ought not to have received, but the judge characterized that as empire building.”
It was a very well managed fraud. A credit to those who perpetrated it. Some of the money has been recovered, some of it, we may never know what was done. There were lax controls, for example, a bunch of debit cards handed out with no idea who was using them at any given time
RCMP officer Cathy McCrory: “If you look at it on the scale of community impact it certainly is one of the largest frauds. Hamilton relied heavily on SISO and the impact can’t be measured in terms of dollars.”
Robert Salama said he is going to have a nice long shower. He will also have six months probation.
Jafarpour will head to Millhaven Maximum security Prison. All federal inmates will go through the process of classification including lock down for 23 hours a day. They will assess his situation and, given who he is, he should be transferred to a minimum security facility before being processed for parole. He is entitled full parole in 8 months and day parole at six months.