B. Ross and H. Dawson: Convicted of contract fraud in Shearwater

[jollyjacktar]

If you're going to do it, you might as well go big.

DND charges four in $1.3-million fraud at CFB Halifax

The Canadian Press
Published July 5, 2016 - 6:02pm
Last Updated July 5, 2016 - 7:32pm

After a four-year investigation, military police have changed four civilians in an alleged $1.3-million fraud at CFB Halifax.

The four — a business owner, his wife and two civilian base employees — were charged after what the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service called “fraudulent purchasing activities” at the base’s heating plant.

The military police probe began in 2012 after an audit uncovered what Maj. Jean-Marc Mercier called a “significant” $1.3-million alleged fraud.

“It is quite significant (an amount) given that it’s a relativity small number of people,” said Mercier on Tuesday. “It was also a significant period of time — a four-year window — and it was a significant investigation as well.”

The charges appear to be related to a $1-million fraud investigation from April 2013, which saw five people — three civilian employees of the defence department at 12 Wing Shearwater -- come under suspicion.

Military police alleged shell companies were created to bid for contracts at Shearwater’s heating plant. The fraud took place for four years, beginning in April 2008.

The service says two former civilian employees, 61-year-old Bry’n Ross and 70-year-old Wayne Langille, are facing charges of fraud over $5,000 and fraud on the government. Investigators say Ross is a former civilian contracts officer and Langille is a former heating plant manager.

Business owner Harold Dawson, 57, and his 54-year-old wife Kim Dawson are also facing charges of fraud over $5,000 and fraud on the government.

The alleged offences relate to purchasing activities with four vendor companies contracted to work at the plant between April 1, 2008 and May 9, 2012.

“The audit indicated suspected fraud in relation to the supply of merchandise to four vendor companies supporting work at the CFB Halifax heating plant,” military police said in a news release. “The CFNIS investigation revealed sufficient evidence to support charges under the Criminal Code of Canada.”

The four accused are scheduled to appear in Dartmouth provincial court on Aug. 22.

“Fraudulent activity and misappropriation of Department of National Defence funds are illegal acts and are taken seriously by the Military Police,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Bolduc, commander of the investigative service.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service’s mandate is to investigate serious and sensitive matters related to the Defence Department, department employees, and Canadian Armed Forces personnel serving in Canada and around the world.

There have been many instances of fraud investigated by military police in the last decade.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service charged Crystal Charlebois-Miller with fraud in Ontario in May 2010.

She was sentenced in 2012 to a 20-month sentence for stealing almost $200,000.

Patience Sangster, 38, a civilian employee in Wainwright, Alta., was also charged after $80,000 went missing.

The current case into the four accused in Halifax continues.

With files from Jordan Parker.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/canada/1377890-dnd-charges-four-in-1.3-million-fraud-at-cfb-halifax

 

[Remius]

If you're going to do it, you might as well go big.

Lol.  Your thread title doesn't exactly match the story... [

 

[jollyjacktar]

Good catch.  [:-[

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Lol.  Your thread title doesn't exactly match the story... [

If it was that amount...it's good they were caught before they could spend the money on a small double double!  8)

 

[kratz]

reference:  CBC.ca

Bry’n Ross and Harold Dawson are back in the news with the $1.3 million contract fraud - 12 Wing Shearwater.

$1.3M military fraud trial involving Shearwater contracts begins
MAY 13, 2019
The trial of two men accused of defrauding the federal government of $1.3 million opened Monday in Halifax, with a former Department of National Defence supervisor testifying about her suspicions surrounding the awarding of certain contracts.

The trial of two men accused of defrauding the federal government of $1.3 million opened Monday in Halifax, with a former Department of National Defence supervisor testifying about her suspicions surrounding the awarding of certain contracts.

The Crown alleges Bry'n Ross and Harold Dawson conspired to funnel contracts for expensive parts for the heating plant at 12 Wing Shearwater to four companies connected to Dawson.

Ross was a civilian contracts officer at the military base outside Dartmouth, N.S., during the time of the alleged offences. The pair were charged with fraud in 2016.

In his opening statement in Nova Scotia Supreme Court, federal prosecutor Mark Donahue said there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle and the Crown intends to call 50 witnesses during a trial expected to run about seven weeks.

He said the Crown will prove that during the period under investigation, almost all the contracts were funneled to companies connected to Dawson: Colonial Industrial Supply, Atlantic Measurement Technologies, M.E. Robar and Harbourside Controls. Donahue said very few competing companies were awarded contracts during the period.

Concerns about 'contract splitting'
The first Crown witness, Mary Ellen Doucet, a retired contract supervisor with DND and Ross's boss, told court she became concerned when she discovered what she thought was "contract splitting" — keeping the dollar amounts of contracts low enough that they wouldn't require competitive bids.

Doucet said policy required that any contracts worth between $1,000 and $2,500 required at least two bidders, $2,500 to $5,000 at least three, while contracts above that dollar amount would have to be dealt with at higher level in the bureaucracy.

Doucet said when she examined some of the contracts Ross had handled, she found what appeared to be similar handwriting on what were supposed to be bids from competing companies.

She said when she looked the companies up on the Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stocks, she found Dawson was tied to all of them. Doucet told court that at that point, she brought in her supervisor and they eventually called in the military police.

Initially, four people were charged following an investigation by the military police. Charges against Dawson's wife, Kimberly Dawson, were withdrawn by the Crown last year.

Another accused, former heating plant manager Wayne Langille, has pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud and is to be sentenced later this month.

In December, Langille's lawyer, Elizabeth Cooper, asked the court for permission to withdraw from the case. Cooper said Langille was unable to pay his bills. Cooper still represents Langillet.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Did they really crank out enough contacts under $5k to rack up $1.3M?  That's crazy.  Even if it's over four years, that is a lot of quotes for basic stuff.

This is some pretty amateur hour stuff, surprised Ricky, Julian and Bubbles aren't in there somewhere.

 

[NavyShooter]

Assuming the contracts were designed to stay below the $2500 threshold, that's just over 520 contracts over the span of 4 years.  130 a year basically.  Just over 2 per week.

How do you get 2 contracts a week for $2500?  Well, a broken pump, a new filter bank, a section of specialized copper pipe, a boiler part, a valve...there's a lot of things that could go wrong in a heating plant. 

If you've got a monthly order for $2000 worth of filters that's an 'auto-fill' that's an easy $24,000 a year.  (Times 4 years, and you're at almost $100K...) and by the 2nd year, no-one would question this purchase because it'd be a 'recurring maintenance' thing...

That one example alone is just under 10% of the way there.

NS

 

[dapaterson]

That one example alone is just under 10% of the way there.

10% of what they have been charged with... sometimes, to streamline the case, the prosecutors don't charge based on all the evidence they hold.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Assuming the contracts were designed to stay below the $2500 threshold, that's just over 520 contracts over the span of 4 years.  130 a year basically.  Just over 2 per week.

How do you get 2 contracts a week for $2500?  Well, a broken pump, a new filter bank, a section of specialized copper pipe, a boiler part, a valve...there's a lot of things that could go wrong in a heating plant. 

If you've got a monthly order for $2000 worth of filters that's an 'auto-fill' that's an easy $24,000 a year.  (Times 4 years, and you're at almost $100K...) and by the 2nd year, no-one would question this purchase because it'd be a 'recurring maintenance' thing...

That one example alone is just under 10% of the way there.

NS

No I get it; I guess where I had issue with were the 'autofill' type situations, or routine purchases of the same equipment. If that's not done under some kind of supply arrangement with standing offers, then all of that is contract splitting (as they should be lumped together). Guess that's what flagged it for the supervisor in an audit or something.

Given how tight they are with operation funds for the base, assuming they were actually receiving the bulk of what they bought (as opposed to shuffling invoices for non-existant parts).  Just seems like a lot of work for a small gain when they all have pretty good paying jobs. I get when people living in poverty do crimes, and I get when people do large dollar value crimes, but I don't really understand people doing middling crimes to live a bit of a better lifestyle. The risk doesn't seem worth the stress, so you can have a newer car, nicer house or take vacations somewhere exotic.  Seems like small thinking I guess.

 

[kratz]

reference:  CBC.ca

Bry’n Ross and Harold Dawson have been convicted of the charges related to $1.3 million contract fraud - 12 Wing Shearwater.

2 N.S. men convicted of $2M fraud against Defence Department

Fraudulent scheme covered 4-year period and involved buying and selling parts for a base's heating plant
Blair Rhodes · CBC News · Posted: Sep 16, 2019 5:47 PM AT

Two Nova Scotia men have been convicted of bilking the Department of National Defence out of about $2 million as part of a scheme to buy and sell parts at exorbitant prices and without competitive bids to the former heating plant at Canadian Forces Base Shearwater in Eastern Passage, N.S.

Bry'n Ross was a purchasing agent for the base and he repeatedly steered contracts to his friend, Harold Dawson, who owned four companies that bid on government contracts.

Evidence at the trial for the two men found Dawson formed the four companies to create the impression there was a competitive bidding process for the supply contracts.

Justice James Chipman found the vast majority of contracts were steered to Dawson's companies. The judge also found that prices for some of the parts supplied in this arrangement were inflated. In one example cited by the judge, a ball valve had a quoted unit price of $8.50, but DND was charged $124.50 for each valve supplied by one of Dawson's companies. DND purchased 15 of the valves.

Both Dawson and Ross testified in their own defence during the trial, which spanned 21 days and included a massive amount of documents. There were 650 purchase orders introduced as evidence, covering the four-year period between April 2008 and May 2012 that formed the basis of the investigation by military police dubbed Operation Aftermath.

4 people originally charged

Chipman said he found both Dawson and Ross lacking credibility in their evidence and was left with no doubt that both men were guilty of fraud.

Four people were initially charged as a result of Operation Aftermath.

Wayne Langille, who was a former manager of the heating plant, entered a guilty plea before the trial started. A charge against Dawson's wife, Kimberley Dawson, was dropped.

The heating plant has since been replaced.