A former Loto-Québec employee will now be facing the consequences of attempting to defraud numerous users of the Crown corporation. It was announced this week, that the perpetrator, Martin Raymond, will face a one-year suspended jail sentence to be served in the community after he was convicted of fraud, breach of trust, and fraudulently taking advantage of his previous position.
According to reports from Quebec’s anti-corruption squad also known as UPAC, between February 2020 and March 2020, Mr. Raymond abused his position as a Loto-Québec employee. He did so by diverting funds which belonged to users of the Crown agency’s online gaming platform for his personal use. However, he was quickly detected.
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On Tuesday, January 24, 2023, UPAC announced that during his employment with the Crown corporation in Q1 of 2020, Mr. Raymond was able to snatch over CA$22,000 of users’ money with his fraudulent scheme. Those funds were gathered from approximately 30 users accounts, and he will now serve a one-year suspended sentence in the community.
In addition to that, in a statement UPAC informed that its used Loto-Québec’s vigilance and collaboration in its investigation of the former staff members. Meanwhile, the Crown corporation also issued a statement noting that the perpetrator’s employment with the Crown agency was concluded less than three months after he was first recruited in February 2020.
Furthermore, the Crown corporation has successfully utilized its different system control mechanisms and on-site verification to catch the culprit. The Crown noted that it quickly identified the irregularities on its platform, and immediately contacted The Sûreté du Québec and the case file was submitted to them. No users were affected by the fraudulent scheme, said the Crown.
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Just recently, Loto-Québec also issued its official financial performance numbers for the first half of the 2022-2023 fiscal year. For the said period the Crown agency reported total revenues of CA$1.466 billion and a consolidated net income of CA$805.3 million. These are a CA$382.9 million and CA$221.3 million increase over last year’s same results.
For the first half of the FY, the Crown had revenue of CA$468.3 million, which is a 5.8% drop from the same period in the last fiscal year. Meanwhile, online lottery sales revenue accounted for 12.7% of the lottery sector. It should be noted that this ratio was significantly less during the first half of the pre-unprecedented situation fiscal year at 3.4%.
The agency also had a tremendous start to the year, as it unveiled and released its new Boréal instant ticket series. The initiative comes in collaboration with Pollard Banknote which has been a long-term partner to the lottery and congratulated it. These new tickets It features 30 different images of animals who reside in Québec.
Source: “Ex-employee sentenced for skimming $22,000 from Loto-Québec website” Montreal Gazette, January 24, 2023
