The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) (TSX:TD) is seeking to recover funds after a fraudster in Metro Vancouver allegedly attempted to finagle nearly $1 million from the bank.
It is not entirely clear what happened to most of that money, although it is possible that the bank was able to recover much of it from bank accounts held within TD.
The lawsuit centres on $204,788 of that money now allegedly held in other Canadian banks.
TD is suing three Canadian banks where that money allegedly still resides: Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) (TSX:RY), Bank of Montreal (BMO) (TSX:BMO) and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) (TSX:CM).
It is also suing Vancouver’s Entercan Immigration Services Inc., of which the sole director is Mehri Bani, who allegedly is the holder of an RBC account where some of the money was funnelled.
TD is also suing Monireh Ghaderi, who is the holder of accounts at BMO and CIBC, where some of the money allegedly is held.
BIV reached out to the banks, which either did not respond with a comment or said that they could not comment because the matter is before the court.
Bani told BIV that she did not have a comment: “For now, nothing,” she said. “We can talk later because this is before the court.”
BIV was unable to find contact information or reach Monireh Ghaderi.
How TD says it was scammed
TD said it has reimbursed $968,598.06 to one of its customers, who was allegedly victimized after the customer transferred that money into the fraudster’s TD bank account.
TD alleges in its notice of civil claim filed Dec. 4 that this alleged fraudster on or about July 12 went to a Surrey TD bank branch and opened a bank account in the victim’s name by impersonating the victim. The lawsuit does not identify the victim or say what identification the alleged fraudster used to create the false identity. TD did not say what identification the fraudster used when asked by BIV.
The fraudster then made various transactions in that account, TD said in its lawsuit.
Sometime between July 12 and Aug. 27, the fraudster delivered a letter to the victim, purportedly from a TD representative, which offered the victim a line of credit up to $2 million, TD said.
After receiving the letter, the victim spoke on the phone and exchanged text messages with the fraudster, TD alleged.
“During that call and in those messages, the fraudster pretended to be a TD representative and directed the victim to deposit funds into the fraud account,” TD said in its lawsuit.
Based on the fraudster’s misrepresentations, the victim deposited into the fraud account a bank draft for $968,598.06 from an RBC account held by the victim.
“The fraudster then conducted various fraudulent transfers from and using the fraud account while impersonating the victim during communications with TD representatives, which led to the depletion of funds held in the fraud account,” TD said.
The fraudster attended TD branches in Surrey and in North Vancouver, according to TD.
During those in-person meetings, three transfers were then sent in September to a TD account held by Novesto Innovative Solutions Inc.: one for $50,640, another for $156,390 and a final one for $347,250, according to TD.
The fraudster also in September in a meeting at a TD branch in Surrey sent $377,875 to a TD account held by Apex Commerce Inc., TD said.
Neither Novesto nor Apex are named as defendants in the lawsuit and TD did not say why when asked by BIV.
“Shortly after receiving the fraudulent transfers in its TD account, Novesto conducted various transfers from that TD account in the amount of $204,788 to accounts at RBC, BMO and CIBC held by Ghaderi and/or Entercan,” TD alleged in its lawsuit.
That is the money that TD seeks to recover.
Those transfers, which were also all in September, included $90,460 to a BMO account held by Ghaderi, $31,000 to an RBC account held by Entercan, and $83,328 to a CIBC account held by Ghaderi.
“The Novesto transfers are proceeds of the fraudulent transfers,” TD said.
Apart from those transfers, Novesto and Apex may have transferred other proceeds of the fraudulent transactions, TD alleged.
Nonetheless, TD is seeking to recover specifically the $204,788 that Novesto transferred outside TD.
Others named in the lawsuit include what TD called “unknown entities,” from which it is seeking damages “in the amount of TD’s loss resulting from the fraud.” It identified those unknown entities as being John Doe, Jane Doe and ABC Co.
If it does not get the desired damages, it said, an alternative would be restitution and punitive damages.
From Jane Doe, John Doe, ABC Co., Entercan and Ghaderi, TD is seeking a constructive trust over the proceeds of the fraudulent transfers deposited and held in RBC, BMO and CIBC, plus a tracing remedy over the proceeds of the fraudulent transfers deposited to those banks’ accounts.
It added that an alternative would be “payment of the sum of $204,788 as restitution for unjust enrichment.”
TD wants “an interim, interlocutory and mandatory order directing Entercan and Ghaderi to immediately transfer any proceeds of the fraudulent transfers to TD, or in the alternative, requiring that such funds be paid into court.”
It also wants a declaration that Entercan and Ghaderi have no authority to give instructions regarding the proceeds of the alleged fraudulent transfers.
Finally, TD wants an order compelling RBC, BMO and CIBC not to make payments from the proceeds of the fraudulent transfers and an order compelling them to provide all banking or other records related to the accounts.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
