Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Laval Police are seeking the public’s help to identify a suspect recently arrested for alleged sexual assaults committed against minors.
According to the LPD, Steve Haddad, age 35, was taken into custody to be processed following allegations of sex crimes committed over the past year.
The charges include child luring, sexual contact, incitement to sexual contact and sexual assault. The LPD believe there may be additional victims.
According to a statement issued last week by the LPD, Haddad, who was arraigned at the Laval Palais de Justice, made initial contact with adolescents through social media.
After gaining their trust, he allegedly would ask them to send him cell phone photos of themselves in sexual poses. The victims were in various regions of Quebec.
Anyone who believes they may have been one of the victims is being by the LPD to call the police Info-Line at 450 662-INFO (4636), or 9-1-1. The file number is LVL 240903-049.
Man sentenced to 30 months for smuggling fake citizen and resident IDs into Canada
A Terrebonne man charged nearly three years ago with attempted forgery and smuggling of counterfeit IDs from China into Canada was sentenced to 30 months in jail last month following a guilty plea at the Palais de Justice in Laval.
Jonghun Lee, 38, was attempting to smuggle more than 1,000 counterfeit pieces, including Canadian citizenship and resident status cards, as well as Alberta and British Columbia driver’s licenses.
The Canada Border Services Agency intercepted a courier parcel he was due to receive from China in January 2022, according to the CBSA.
The CBSA said that once opened at their Montréal–Mirabel International Airport office, the package was seen to contain 509 counterfeit blank Canada permanent residency cards and 506 counterfeit blank Alberta driver’s licences.
A later search of his home by CBSA agents led to the discovery of document-forging equipment, partly finished counterfeit IDs, and close to $140,000 in Canada and U.S. currency.
Also seized during the CBSA’s search operation were printing presses used to counterfeit money, as well as computers and cellphones.
The CBSA said Lee was also convicted of forging documents, including work permits, with the intention they would be used or acted upon by users as genuine.
In a published report Dec. 3 on alleged child-labour violations at a meat processing facility in the U.S. state of Iowa, the New York Times cited a former U.S. Labor Dept. division head who suggested the rising prevalence of false IDs is symptomatic of an underlying problem faced by employers.
“Individuals, including minors, obtaining jobs through their use of fraudulent identification documents,” said Paul DeCamp.
Laval man arrested near Trois-Rivières as suspect in banking card fraud scheme
A 44-year-old man from Laval is one of two individuals arrested in Louiseville 30 kilometres west of Trois Rivières on suspicion of perpetrating a banking card fraud scheme.
The Sûreté du Québec were tipped off by victims who said the man, identified as Pierre Lefebvre by the Trois-Rivières daily Le Nouvelliste, was making the rounds in villages and towns with an unidentified 62-year-old female accomplice from Saint-Jérôme.
It is alleged that up to 15 acts of fraud were committed by the pair since November 30.
Lefebvre was arraigned at the Trois-Rivières courthouse on a charge of fraud of less than $5,000, as well as theft less than $5,000.
He is also accused of being in possession of a counterfeit driver’s license.
Two Laval business owners convicted of tax evasion
Two business owners from Laval were recently sentenced to pay more than a half-million dollars in fines after being found guilty of evading payment of taxes owed to Revenu Québec, the province’s tax collection agency.
Fadi Khoury and Maria Poroshina were found liable for more than $500,641 in unpaid tax, with Khoury receiving an additional 12-month prison sentence.
Both ran an employment agency for factory workers. Each will have to pay more than $250,000.
The court found that Poroshina was acting as a front for Khoury who ran a business under a numbered company name.
She acknowledged having taken steps to avoid paying federal and provincial sales tax on products and services, while he admitted filing tax forms containing false or misleading information with federal and provincial tax authorities.