Indo-Canadian MP named in $120 mn bank fraud

TORONTO - Devinder Shory, Canada’s newest MP of Indian origin, has been named in a $120 million mortgage fraud.

Shory, 51, who was elected to the Canadian parliament for the first time in 2008, is one of the nine MPs of Indian-origin in the House of Commons.

A practising lawyer in Calgary, Shory was elected from Calgary Northeast, beating two fellow Indo-Canadians - Satnam Kang of the Liberal Party and Vinay Dey of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

In a lawsuit Wednesday, the Bank of Montreal - which is one of the top five Canadian banks - named Shory along with over 100 people in the multimillion mortgage scam. Lawyers, brokers and the bank’s own staff are among those named in the mega-fraud.

The Indian-born MP has been named in the lawsuit case as the lawyer for four mortgages. The bank is yet to serve a statement of claim to the MP who represents the ruling Conservative Party in parliament.

“Through media stories, it has come to my attention that I have been named in a civil matter. I want to state that I have not yet been served with a statement of claim,” Shory said in a statement.

He said: “I will defend myself vigorously against these accusations. I have done nothing wrong. As the matter is before the courts, I have no further comment at this time.”

As per the lawsuit, the fraudsters scammed the bank by finding houses with lower values than others. Then they found people whom they paid $3,000 to $8,000 each to sign on mortgage papers and become fake owners.

Then the fraudsters would inflate income of these fake buyers to get mortgage applications approved. Once the bank approved the mortgage, the fraudsters sent the money abroad, the bank said in its lawsuit.

Shory is the second Indian-origin MP in Canada to come under the scanner. Indian-origin former MP Rahim Jaffer, who lost in the 2008 parliamentary elections, is already facing a parliamentary probe for alleged ethics violations.