Three York employees were arrested in relation to a fraud that occurred at York over seven years.
The fraud, alleged to have occurred between November 2005 and October 2012, is estimated to have cost the university $1.6 million. Police allege the employees issued fake invoices to the university.
Toronto Police announced the arrests on March 20. This is an ongoing investigation, and police expect more arrests to be made and further charges to be laid.
Vittoria Caparello is being charged with two counts of fraud over $5,000, Yossi Zaidfeld is charged with one count of fraud over $5,000, and Melissa Caparello faces a charge of possession of property obtained by crime of under $5,000.
Malissa Caparello is still employed as an administrative assistant in the dean’s office at the faculty of environmental studies and has been employed by the university since January 2005.
In regards to the future of her employment status, Joanne Rider of York media says the university is currently doing a review of the matter, and once a decision has been made, appropriate action will be taken.
“As soon as the university was informed that there was a suspicion of fraud, we did two things: we informed the police and we engaged an external firm to conduct a forensic audit,” says Rider.
“The university has already recovered the money estimated to be lost plus additional costs since the university initially found out about the alleged fraud in October of 2012,” she says.
York was notified of the fraud when a whistleblower came forward with the information around the same time the university implemented new policies and procedures to detect fraud, says Rider.
These policies were developed following a 2012 case in which two former York executives were accused of taking part in a massive phony invoice scheme and of defrauding the university of $1.2 million.
The Theft, Fraud and Misappropriation of Funds Policy developed as a result helped strengthen the university’s controls against fraud. The changes included an updated whistleblower policy, a conflict of interest policy, and the implementation of a comprehensive fraud risk assessment initiative.
“So it was at that time an individual came forward and indicated that they suspected suspicious activity,” says Rider.
As part of this policy, the identity of the whistleblower remains confidential.
Hamid Adem
News Editor
