6

FALSE CREDENTIALS AND
THE ART OF DECEPTION

TRUST ME, I’M AN ACCOUNTANT

Sebastien Vinesh moved to Edmonton from Montreal in the late 1970s. Vinesh had been involved in the drug trade, mainly cocaine, and after some trouble in Montreal he decided to move west and start again. Most of Vinesh’s customers were part of Edmonton’s gay community, and, being gay himself, Vinesh was more than willing to deal with the community. Another part of Vinesh’s makeup was that he was interested in accounting and could be quite successful at it.

One August, Vinesh met Julie at a nightclub he always frequented. Julie was married to George, the owner of a moderate oil and gas exploration company. Julie was not there with George that night; instead, she was looking to score some cocaine. It did not take long for Vinesh and Julie to get acquainted, and Julie became a regular customer of Vinesh’s.

After several months of supplying Julie with cocaine and learning about George’s business, Vinesh proposed that, since he was a chartered accountant, he could do George’s books for him for less money than George was probably paying now. This would also allow Vinesh to keep in contact with Julie and keep her cocaine supply available. Julie proposed this plan to George, who reluctantly agreed to Julie’s wishes. It wasn’t long before Vinesh convinced Julie and her sixteen-year-old daughter Samantha that he could do more work for George’s company if he moved into the spare basement suite.

By this time, George was aware that Julie had a drug problem and he suspected that Vinesh was the source. He also suspected that Vinesh was also providing cocaine to his daughter. However, George did not want to create a scene that would upset Julie, so he allowed Vinesh to move in and hoped that his support would be enough to see them through this.

Vinesh continued as George’s accountant, paying the bills and completing the ledgers. To George’s surprise, Vinesh was quite good at accounting. Vinesh had purchased, through the company, an accounting software program that enabled him to fulfill all of the basic accounting needs. This, along with his natural ability, allowed him to give the appearance of a professional accountant.

After two years of Vinesh living in her home and providing her and Samantha with cocaine, Julie was tragically killed in a motor vehicle accident. After the funeral, George felt that he had no further obligation to maintain Vinesh and had him move out. He also arranged for Samantha to undergo treatment for her drug addiction. Everything appeared to be getting back on track — until the bills started coming.

While acting as George’s accountant, Vinesh had applied for a credit card for himself in George’s company’s name without George’s knowledge. With this card, Vinesh purchased two cell phones; one for himself and one for his partner. He then took a skiing vacation to Whistler, British Columbia, with his partner, and booked a separate spa retreat in the United States, again with his partner, and advanced himself $5,000 cash to pay for other “incidentals.”

George made several attempts to locate Vinesh but was unable to track him down. He made the decision to reimburse the company from his personal funds and to drop the whole affair. In his mind, the cost of the trips and the cash were the price he had to pay to get Vinesh out of his and Samantha’s life — until Vinesh cashed a $20,000 cheque drawn on the company. George’s business partner insisted that he call the police, and Vinesh was charged for the frauds against the company. Following the laying of criminal charges and after pleading guilty to the fraud and theft charges against George, Vinesh was released on probation and was once again free to move on to his next victim.

Le Sorbonne d’Edmonton is a full-emersion French school in an affluent neighbourhood in Edmonton, Alberta. The school caters to families whose lifestyle involves travelling abroad and working in other countries. The school is governed by a board of directors and raises money through pledges and donations as well as tuition. The accountant for the school had decided that it was time to retire and take time for himself. The school therefore approached a local personnel agency, Blackwell Personnel, to provide them with an accountant.

Blackwell had what they believed was the perfect candidate. He was French-Canadian, had a degree in accounting from McGill University, and had several letters of reference. The school agreed, and Sebastien Vinesh was dispatched to the school to meet the board. The board was suitably impressed with Vinesh’s credentials and agreed to hire him. The previous accountant agreed to stay on for a month to aid in the transition.

After the previous accountant’s departure, Vinesh took over control of the school’s finances. To do this, he insisted that he needed complete control over banking functions: writing cheques, making deposits, petty cash, and the handling of donations. To assist the school, Vinesh donated the purchase of an accounting program that he was familiar with.

Vinesh ingratiated himself into the daily happenings at the school. He donated $50 to the school’s fundraising efforts for the victims of natural disasters and he offered to count and deposit the funds from the cafeteria. However, Vinesh was also a gossiper. He began to spread lies and innuendos about various members of the staff, especially when their role brought them into contact with his financial responsibilities. He would also use his homosexuality as a weapon against staff members, claiming that certain people did not like him or were against him because of his gay lifestyle.

The situation came to a head when $4,500 that the students had raised for disaster relief failed to be deposited into the bank. Vinesh claimed that he had seen one of the teachers outside his office the day before and that he did not trust her because of some of the rumours going around. These were the same rumours that Vinesh had started weeks previously.

The board decided that the missing money was a matter for the police to investigate. Vinesh promised his full cooperation, but left that evening and was not seen by the board again.

When the police investigated the incident, they discovered a number of holes in Vinesh’s life story. Although he was French-Canadian, he had never attended McGill University, let alone graduate with an accounting degree. The letters of reference had all been produced by Vinesh’s partner, and produced on manufactured letterhead to fictitious companies in Quebec. The accounting program that he donated to the school was one of two that he had used the school’s credit card to purchase; in effect, making the school donate it to themselves. It was the same program he had used when working for George’s company, so it was no wonder he was familiar with it. As for the $50 donation, this was the difference in the petty cash that another teacher had counted and then Vinesh deposited. Police examination also revealed that there was no sign of forced entry into Vinesh’s office or filing cabinet where the $4,500 was kept prior to the theft.

Unfortunately, Vinesh was not finished with his adventures. A land development company hired him, while using the same references he used for the school. Again, Vinesh insisted that he have sole control over the accounting and finances, and he began to spread dissent throughout the office once again. Vinesh was so successful in this endeavour that he was able to convince the managers to move the safe containing stock documents into his office and to make him solely responsible for the combination.

Vinesh used his position at the development company to pay for another trip to Whistler for him and his partner, to repair his car, to make purchases over the Internet, and to obtain two more cell phones.

Vinesh’s house of cards came down when one afternoon the travel agent booking his flight to Hawaii called the development company for authorization and left a message with one of the managers. This manager confronted Vinesh, and in an indignant rage, Vinesh submitted his letter of resignation and walked out. Once he had gone, the company discovered his use of the company credit card to finance all of his purchases. They also found that several blank company cheques had gone missing. These turned up as counterfeit cheques to be deposited into the United States, but there was no direct evidence to tie Vinesh to these cheques and the matter was not investigated further.

Vinesh next went to work for a manufacturing company as their chief accountant. Again, he was able to convince the owner to provide him with control of the accounting and signing authority for purchase orders and accounts payable. Vinesh also attempted to continue with his pattern of divide and conquer by spreading rumours about the staff. Fortunately for the company, the manager also happened to be the owner’s daughter, Michelle.

One morning, Michelle received a call from a local car dealership telling her that the company’s new Mustang convertible was ready for pickup after its regular servicing. This was a surprise to Michelle. She drove an older model Honda and knew nothing about a new Mustang. When she asked the leasing company, she was told that Vinesh had leased it in the company’s name six months ago. Michelle knew that something was not right and began to review the accounts payable ledgers. Her reviews led her to some interesting discoveries.

Besides the Mustang, and all applicable registration and insurance, Vinesh had authorized five $2,000 bonuses within two months. He had purchased office furniture and an alarm system for his personal residence, and also purchased two laptop computers, two cell phones, and other miscellaneous items over the Internet. Michelle was prepared to confront Vinesh and had arranged for the police to be present to arrest him at the office. Not surprisingly, Vinesh failed to come into work that day or any day after. He was busy outside the city.

Vinesh met Sandra and Jim Hodges when he was looking to purchase a car for his partner. Jim and Sandra owned a small used auto parts lot specializing in Ford Thunderbirds. Like most small businesses, they had a select clientele and were moderately successful. A deal was struck to sell Vinesh a Thunderbird for $4,000 and for the use of his accounting services.

Vinesh had confided in Jim and Sandra that he was planning on moving to Drumheller with his partner to open a restaurant. He hoped that he could make it work just like Jim and Sandra had made their business work. Over the months, Vinesh was a frequent visitor to the Hodges’ house and auto yard doing the books and striking up a friendship with them.

One evening, Vinesh showed up at the house unexpectedly, needing to speak to Jim. Vinesh had just learned of an opportunity to purchase a site for his restaurant. It was available for $125,000, but the deal would not last because it was a prime location. Vinesh wanted to offer Jim a special deal, because he needed the cash quickly. Vinesh explained that when he was working for a land developer, he had had the opportunity to buy some share certificates from a family whose father died, and they had missed several payments. Vinesh had purchased seventy-five thousand shares and did not want to sell them, but he needed the cash right away. Vinesh went on the Internet and showed the stock market report of the shares currently trading at $1.35 a share. Vinesh was willing to sell them to Jim for a total price of $60,000.

Although Jim was not familiar with the stock market, even he knew this was a good deal. Even if he sold them next week, since today was Friday and the markets had closed, he would make a profit. The deal was done on a handshake, and Jim wrote Vinesh a company cheque for $60,000.

Over the next several months, Vinesh would contact Jim, but not as frequently as before. On one occasion, Vinesh told Jim he needed another $10,000 for restaurant renovations, but his accounts were tied up. Could Jim loan him the money for no more than a month? Jim agreed and wrote Vinesh another cheque for $10,000. Finally, the calls from Vinesh stopped all together. Jim and Sandra carried on with their business but wanted to expand with a specialized workshop and tools. It appeared to be a good time to cash in the shares they had purchased from Vinesh, so they went to the developer’s office.

Once inside the manager’s office, Jim and Sandra offered to sell their shares to the company for the current market value. The manager examined the share certificates and realized something was wrong. He knew the owners of the certificates and also knew they had not sold them. It appeared that the certificates were stolen from the safe that was in their former accountant’s office and were still the property of the original owners as there was no transfer of title to the Hodges. He told Jim and Sandra that the matter was out of his hands and should be referred to the police.

When presented with a deal that appears to be too good to be true, it often is. If someone offers an exceptional return on an investment, take the time to do some research. Deals are rarely so time sensitive that they have to be acted upon without some thought or simple precautions. Remember that the fraudster wants you to act quickly and impulsively because the longer you take to think about his or her offer, the more likely that his or her scheme will be discovered.

When trusting someone like Vinesh to handle and manage your money, take the time to check all references and call the companies in question. If presented with stocks and certificates, contact the company issuing the certificates or the holder’s name on the certificate. Ensure that the certificates are legitimate and that the person is actually acting on behalf of the company.

Most fraudsters are more than capable of coming up with, and juggling, numerous schemes and obtaining money from their victims. They can provide all the documents, diplomas, references, and anything else you may ask for in order to forward their scheme. It is all based and founded on a lie. Like any weak foundation, once it starts to crumble, the rest of the structure will tumble down.

If the personnel agency had checked the references more closely, they would have noticed that Vinesh’s reference contact information was the same as his home address. If the companies that Vinesh worked for had recognized the disharmony that was occurring in the office, they could have been alerted sooner to potential problems. If the Hodges had made inquiries about purchasing and selling certificates with a financial advisor, they may not have handed over their money so quickly. Of course, hindsight is always “20/20.”

You don’t have to distrust everyone or expect that everyone is out to rip you off, but like comparison shopping, it pays to be informed. And although a little knowledge can be dangerous, a reasonable amount of knowledge is your best defence.