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A second accused in a breach of trust case that targeted the Lester B. Pearson School Board has pleaded guilty.
In a statement issued Thursday, Quebec’s anti-corruption unit, UPAC, announced that Naveen Kolan, who ran the Edu Edge Inc. foreign student recruitment agency, pleaded guilty to a charge of breach of trust.
On May 29, a publication ban was lifted on the guilty plea entered earlier in May by Caroline Mastantuono, the former head of the Lester B. Pearson School Board’s international department, to forgery charges filed against her nearly four years ago following an investigation by UPAC.
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Mastantuono pleaded guilty to forgery and trafficking or possessing a forged document. The schemes involved international students who wanted to study in Quebec. She pleaded guilty on May 13, but was under a publication ban until a hearing at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday.
Arguments for sentencing in Mastantuono’s case will take place Sept. 24, while those for Kolan are scheduled for Nov. 1.
According to a joint statement of facts filed into the court record when Mastantuono pleaded guilty, the UPAC probe began in 2016 and investigated “allegations of fraud, fabrication, use of forged documents and abuse of trust at the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB).”
The schemes involved foreign students who wished to enrol in an educational program in Quebec. To do so, they had to obtain a Quebec Acceptance Certificate before the start of their studies. If the student didn’t have legal status to reside in Canada, they had to receive a study permit from Immigration and Citizenship Canada.
According to the joint statement of facts, “the Crown, through the evidence presented at trial, would discharge the burden incumbent upon them in a criminal trial to establish that Mastantuono instructed the staff to forge false receipts of tuition payment, which attested that the students had paid their tuition in full, even if that was not the case. That evidence would also demonstrate that the staff were instructed to forge these documents for students of Indian origin, as they were told that those students did not show sufficient financial capacity and the receipt of payment was necessary for the issuance of the Quebec Acceptance Certificate.”
The company that benefited from the forgeries was owned by Kolan and recruited students from India who wanted to study in Quebec.
The company billed the LBPSB for the recruitment commission of the students.
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