HALIFAX – A businessman whose employees once cleaned Halifax Regional Municipality facilities faces dozens of counts of immigration fraud after a Canada Border Services Agency investigation.
The agency alleges Hector Mantolino, owner and operator of Mantolino Property Services Ltd., paid some cleaners from the Philippines as little as $3.13 hour and told them to lie about their wages if they wanted to stay in Canada.
The agency believes 28 people were victims of the fraud.
Albert Price of the agency says Mantolino was arrested in April and is facing 56 charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
The charges allege that Mantolino provided false statements to more than one federal government department about the workers’ employment conditions.
He also allegedly developed false businesses and fraudulently submitted documents to Service Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration.
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