Landlord, case worker named in alleged city kickback scheme

Court documents reveal the name of the landlord and the former housing worker charged in an alleged kickback scheme that, according to an investigation by Ottawa's auditor general, resulted in the city paying inflated rents through a housing allowance program.

The landlord is Sandeep A. Aggerwal, 56, who was a director of the corporation Subhkin Canada Inc. He's facing charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribing a municipal employee.

That municipal employee is Kim A. Simon, 55. The court documents identify her as a case worker for a public housing program. She's also charged with fraud and breach of trust, as well as accepting a bribe as a municipal employee.

The documents allege Simon, in her role as a case worker, helped Aggerwal attain higher rental fees and received "bonuses" in exchange. They allege that both Simon and Aggerwal defrauded the public of money.

That matches what the city's auditor general found in a report published last year. The allegations cover the period from Nov. 14, 2023, to Oct. 1 of last year. 

Aggerwal was receiving payments from city housing programs even before that period, according to city records. In 2020, Aggerwal and Subhkin Canada Inc. received a combined $159,117 in rent supplements and housing allowances from the city.

Payments through the program don't appear in 2021 documents. But in 2022, the sum was $129,280. Aggerwal and his company got $106,933 from city homelessness programs in 2023.

Those figures do not necessarily represent the entirety of the rent subsidy money, since some funding under the program is provincial. The city's totals only represent subsidies covered entirely through municipal funds.

Last year's records, which would reveal the bulk of the payments during the period Aggerwal was allegedly paying bonuses, are not yet available and the city media relations department said it was unable to release the totals at this time.

Names revealed in court documents

Three other directors of Subhkin Canada Inc., all of whom share Aggerwal's last name, also appear in the payment records and collected tens of thousands of dollars more. None of those three people are facing charges, however.

According to Subkhin Canada's website, it is a real estate, property management and land development company specializing in retail, apartment and industrial warehouse projects. Its website says that the company controls more than 300 rental units in the Ottawa area.

The corporation is now inactive. Corporations Canada's directory reveals it was discontinued in May of last year. But Aggerwal is still a director of an active Ontario registered corporation called Subhkin Management Inc. 

Police announced the charges on Monday, but not the names. CBC obtained them from documents police filed with the court to launch proceedings. Aggerwal is due to appear in court on June 10,  while Simon's court date is June 13.

None of the allegations against Simon and Aggerwal have been proven in court. Simon did not respond to CBC's request for comment posed via Facebook. Reached by phone, Aggerwal said "let me call you back," but did not do so before this article was published.

Lengthy fraud investigation

The charges follow a lengthy investigation by the Ottawa Police Service's organized fraud section. That investigation was itself triggered by a report the city's auditor general released in December.

Responding to a tip through the city's fraud and waste hotline, the auditor general's office found evidence of what she described as a "kickback scheme."

Her report alleged that the landlord paid more than $22,000 to the case worker from November 2023 until last October. Her investigation examined banking records and messaging data.

In one message, the landlord allegedly referred to the payment as a "bonus" paid in exchange for helping him score higher rents from her clients. According to the auditor general's report, the rents were well above market rates — in one case 63 per cent higher.

Those rents were covered in part by housing allowances through a taxpayer-funded rent subsidy program meant to get homeless people off the street and into private market homes.

The revelations prompted the city to temporarily pause new intakes into the program late last year, leading to a backlog of applications that worried housing advocates who said it would leave people waiting longer for homes.

The auditor general recommended to the city six changes, all of which were accepted. At the time, the city confirmed that the case worker was no longer employed there.