The YMCA of Greater Toronto is suing a former employee alleging she orchestrated a kickback scheme that defrauded the charity and robbed taxpayers of more than $2 million.
The former employee, Christine Ruth Burns, is accused of conspiring with several others to steal $2.2 million intended for a job-training program funded by the federal government. In October 2023, she was criminally charged by Ontario Provincial Police with fraud, identity theft and uttering forged documents.
While working at the YMCA’s Richmond Hill office from 2015 to 2018, Burns allegedly co-ordinated a scheme in which several companies invoiced the charity to be reimbursed through the Canada-Ontario Job Grant for training that never took place. Burns received “secret commissions” from the companies in return, the YMCA alleges.
In all, the YMCA’s statement of claim names eight individuals — including Burns’ husband, Thomas Patrick Burns — and eight companies as defendants. The allegations have not been tested in court.
Burns and her husband denied the YMCA’s allegations against them in a joint statement of defence, saying they have “no knowledge of any alleged fraudulent scheme.” They did not respond to questions for this story.
A spokesperson for the YMCA said the agency was “unable to comment” because the matter is before the courts.
YMCA searched banking records
The Canada-Ontario Job Grant is intended to reimburse employers who pay for their employees’ training. The program is funded by the federal government and delivered by the province through agencies such as the YMCA. Both the federal and provincial ministries responsible for the grant declined comment on the allegations in the lawsuit.
The YMCA discovered the alleged fraud in August 2018 after TD Bank flagged to the agency a suspicious transaction related to the job-grant program. That led the YMCA to audit the entire program, and that led them to Burns, who administered the program in York Region. Burns was fired by the YMCA in October 2018.
The YMCA acquired banking records for all the defendants as part of its investigation and hired a forensic accountant to trace the alleged scheme.
Scrutinizing the transactions, they found undisclosed connections between the owners of the companies applying to the program and the companies hired to provide the training, as well as several highly suspicious transactions, including 20 cheques issued to nine different companies allegedly deposited into the same bank account.
Here’s how the alleged fraud worked, as described in hundreds of pages of records filed in court by the YMCA: Burns approved fraudulent grant applications and invoices, which led the YMCA to issue reimbursement cheques to several companies that had applied for the grant money. Those companies then allegedly paid a portion to companies that claimed to provide training, and then all the companies allegedly kicked back part of what they received to companies owned by Burns and her husband.
Husband and wife sued by YMCA
In their statement of defence, Burns and her husband say any payments their companies received were “for consulting on business matters unrelated to the (Canada-Ontario Job Grant) program.”
In June 2022, a judge granted the YMCA’s request to freeze Burns’ and other defendants’ assets to ensure they could not be “put beyond the reach of the YMCA.” The judge said he was “satisfied that there is sufficient evidence of kickbacks from the training companies to Ms. Burns and her companies” to merit the freezing of assets.
Also criminally charged is Elston Lindsay Richardson, identified in civil court documents as the co-owner or director of multiple companies accused of participating in the alleged fraud. Richardson and his wife, Maria Liza Richardson, are among those being sued by the YMCA, which accuses them of conspiring with Burns and using money obtained via the alleged fraud to pay for home renovations.
In their joint statement of defence to the YMCA’s lawsuit, the Richardsons deny all of the allegations against them. Their court filing states that Elston Richardson is an accountant and that he met Burns and learned of the grant money available through the YMCA through one of his clients. He subsequently applied to the program on behalf of his accounting practice, Richco Realty Corp., retained a training company, and was reimbursed for the legitimate costs of the training.
The Richardsons declined to be interviewed, but their lawyer, Alysha Shore, wrote in an email that they are “vigorously defending the allegations.”
