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SISO trial continues

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It was an entire day of cross examination, and it’s not over for the witness on the stand at the fraud trial for the former leaders of Hamilton’s Settlement and Integration Services Organization, or SISO. The witness was SISO’s computer network administrator, and he’s also the one who brought a hard drive with allegedly incriminating evidence to police.

Marius Carciumaru started the day less emotional than he had been yesterday, when he repeatedly broke down and had trouble speaking. He admits that he used Photoshop to alter bank statements, cheques and payroll, and that he and his partner Radu Bogdan were the only ones at SISO that had the capability to effectively use Photoshop, but he says he did it because he was told to.

Carciumaru told the court he was at a very emotional meeting in october of 2010, when SISO employees were told that their funding had been cut, and as many as 80 of them out of about 140 could lose their jobs. He said everyone was upset and pointing fingers. Afterwards, he said Morteza Jafarpour asked him to meet at a Tim Hortons. Jafarpour was SISO’s executive director, and he is charged with fraud and theft and altering documents in this case, along with Robert Salama who was Finance Director.

Carciumaru says Jafarpour told him to delete any incriminating evidence from SISO computers.

Carciumaru says he went straight to SISO offices, and instead replaced Jafarpours Hardrive and downloaded information from Salama’s computer. He then took the original hard drive home. The following month, Jafarpour was charged with uttering death threats, and several managers testified against him. He was acquitted.

Today,