Woman defrauded foster care agency of more than $1M, police say

A First Nations foster care agency in Winnipeg was defrauded of more than $1 million by one of its employees, police say.

A 46-year-old woman, who was in a senior financial position with the agency — Shawenim Abinoojii — at the time, is charged with multiple offences relating to fraud, forgery and falsification of books and documents.

"She was in a position of very high authority," police spokesperson Const. Rob Carver said.

The woman was fired after other administrators discovered financial irregularities.

Police were notified in April 2019 and investigators in the financial crimes unit found evidence of transactions going back to March 2016, Carver said. 

"When you come with file boxes of binders of evidence, supporting in excess of $1 million worth of fraud, it takes a long time," he said about why it took so long to lay the charges.

Shawenim Abinoojii provides foster care, support worker services and programming for First Nations children and families in Winnipeg and rural Manitoba.

Police said the fraudulent transactions included:

• Bogus cheques totalling $743,110.
• Phony payroll transactions totalling $222,432.
• Unauthorized credit card charges and cash advances of $42,000.

The total amount of fraudulent transactions was approximately $1,007,542.

"This is a very significant fraud. We don't normally see frauds into the seven figures in our investigations here," Carver said.

"I don't believe much of it, if any of it, was recovered."

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