A Bank of Montreal financial planner allegedly embezzled more than $180,000 from seven elderly clients to indulge his passion for gambling and pay personal debts.
Jérémie Paquet, a BMO planner in the Quebec region, allegedly set up a complex fraudulent scheme that included transfers between accounts in different institutions to thwart the bank’s controls.
He was suspended in mid-May before being fired ten days later by his employer. The young man is said to have systematically targeted elderly people by making unauthorized withdrawals from their accounts by means of checks or bank drafts payable to his name.
Gambling issues
That’s what a BMO investigator discovered after a bank draft that Paquet was trying to cash caught the attention of an employee.
Worried that more funds would be squandered, the bank went to court for a restraint order on Paquet’s assets. Superior Court Judge Nicole Tremblay authorized the seizure before judgment at the end of May.
The bank says it still hasn’t completed its investigation. She says she bases her estimate on the sum of more than $180,000 that Paquet has already admitted to having embezzled.
The bank’s investigator speaks of “acts of a fraudulent nature” committed by the employee.
Paquet would have confessed when confronted by the bank, and he would have admitted to his gambling problem, which he had never spoken about before.
According to information gathered by the bank, Jérémie Paquet would have used a credit card in the name of his spouse to play. However, the latter was unaware of the existence of this card in her name.
