Durham Regional Police have charged eight people with 33 offences and are seeking five more suspects on 19 more charges in a complex fraud investigation known as Project Fletcher.
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Investigators allege Duaa Hadweh, 54, of Clarington, a female employed as the operations manager of a Durham Region cleaning service known as ServiceMaster for 23 years, defrauded that business of more than $3 million between 2016-2021.
Cops believe the defrauding amount may be much higher and that it happened over 15 years, but the review period was limited to January 2015 through October 2021 due to lack of available financial records.
Police say following a corporate restructuring during which Hadweh was moved to a different position at ServiceMaster, financial irregularities were allegedly identified by the new operations manager prompting an internal audit and notification to police in November 2021.
Fraud scheme allegedly involved diversion of employee wages
Investigators allege Hadweh orchestrated a sophisticated fraud scheme involving the diversion of employee wages, the redirection of payroll funds to other individuals – including family members – and the submission of fraudulent subcontractor invoices for work that was never performed.
“The investigation (alleges) that Mrs. Hadweh orchestrated a sophisticated long term fraud scheme with diverting employee wages into her own bank account, re-directing pay from certain employees to others, including members of her own family, and submitting fraudulent subcontractor invoices to ServiceMaster for work that was never performed,” Det. Brad Chapman, of the Financial Crimes Unit, claimed at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
“The investigation also determined that funds directed to Mrs. Hadweh’s son and daughter were used to make ongoing mortgage payments for a newly constructed home. That property was later sold at profit and the proceeds were allegedly laundered back to Mrs. Hadweh and her husband,” he alleged.
Case involves hundreds of fraudulent cheques
A forensic audit allegedly identified approximately 270 fraudulent cheques issued to eight subcontractor companies and deposited into 22 bank accounts.
Police allege there was extensive money laundering activity, including the use of cheque‑cashing businesses, multiple financial institutions, and the movement of funds across Durham Region, the GTA and to Uruguay and South America.
Cops say the case involved 27 judicial orders, nearly 80,000 pages of financial records, 30 large datasets, and close to 800 investigative file attachments.
Duaa Hadweh, 54, of Clarington, is charged with fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000, possession of proceeds over $5,000, launder proceeds of crime and utter forged documents.
Bishara Hadweh, 63, of Clarington, Rina Hadweh, 30, of the U.S., Richard Hadweh, 31, of Clarington, Roberto Campos, 63, of Oshawa, and and Melba Carbajal, 61, of Oshawa, are all charged with fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000, possession of proceeds over $5,000 and launder proceeds of crime.
Fabiane Batista Campos, 58, of Oshawa, is charged with fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000, possession of proceeds over $5,000.
Willians Freddy Roman, 58, of Brampton, is charged with fraud over $5,000, possession of proceeds over $5,000 and launder proceeds of crime.
The other five suspects sought are Gabriel Gustavo Amuz Cerqui, 56, Gabriela Noel Amuz Balari, 23, Rodrigo Nicolas Amuz Balari, 21, Alexandra Noemi Ramos Bausero, 39, and Gustavo Alejandro Malvarez, 59.
Anyone with information about this investigation is asked to call the Financial Crimes Unit at 1‑888‑579‑1520, ext. 5358, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1‑800‑222‑TIPS (8477).