Toronto nearly lost $2.5M in electricity fraud. City committee suggests police should investigate

Arrthy Thayaparan · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 11, 2025 6:26 PM EDT | Last Updated: July 11

Toronto's adjacent telephone with a $2.5-million energy fraud strategy volition beryllium headed to metropolis assembly aft a question passed astatine the audit committee connected Friday.

The committee besides recommended assembly to loop successful the Toronto Police Service Board and constabulary main to see if the lawsuit meets the threshold for a transgression investigation.

Last month, the auditor general's office found that successful 2019, 14 city-owned properties' energy accounts were switched to 2 antithetic third-party vigor retailers — alternatively of Toronto Hydro — without the city's knowledge. 

The auditor general's bureau added successful its study that the identities of retired employees with the city's firm existent property absorption (CREM) section were fraudulently utilized to motion contracts. 

Auditor wide Tara Anderson and CREM enforcement manager Patrick Matozzo told the audit committee that portion controls are present successful place to observe specified frauds, it's important that different departments are made alert of the imaginable risks. 

"There's ever the hazard of identities being stolen and that fraud could beryllium committed," said Anderson.

"But having bully controls successful spot volition assistance to observe and investigations similar this assistance to cognize that there's consequences." 

The audit committee is recommending that assembly petition the metropolis manager guardant the probe to different departments to promote diligent invoice reviews and approvals, particularly erstwhile it comes to electricity invoices. 

The auditor general's probe began successful 2020, but was paused owed to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in 2024. 

Retired employees' credentials fraudulently used

The contented archetypal raised flags erstwhile CREM identified "unusual" invoices during a regular relationship review in the autumn of 2019 and saw the accounts had been switched successful July of that year.

The probe recovered that consulting steadfast owners seemed to beryllium involved in establishing the contracts with third-party retailers, fraudulently using retired metropolis employees' identifications. 

The auditor general told the committee determination was nary grounds the retired employees had immoderate involvement. The probe adjacent consulted a hand-writing adept to beryllium certain, she said. 

WATCH | How tin you support yourself against fraud? 

The study said determination was not capable grounds to find if different metropolis employees were involved. 

The contracts with the third-party retailers were valued astatine $4.2 million, which is $2.5 cardinal higher than what the metropolis would wage with Toronto Hydro, the study said. 

The metropolis was capable to retrieve the $250,000 that was paid to the vigor retailers betwixt the clip the contracts began and were cancelled.

The auditor general's study said the matter has been referred to Toronto police, which said earlier this week that a reappraisal was underway. 

The audit committee's recommendation to elevate the lawsuit to the constabulary committee was made to escalate the information for a constabulary investigation. 

Controls successful spot to debar aboriginal fraud: CREM 

Patrick Matozzo, the enforcement manager for CREM, said the section present has a squad to ticker retired for these sorts of issues. 

"We can't power fraud that happens extracurricular our power processes. But we person processes each the mode done to guarantee that if thing similar that were to happen, we'd really drawback it," helium said. 

Matozzo said Toronto Hydro is besides moving with them to ticker retired for immoderate aboriginal declaration changes.