Former Canucks draft pick accused of multi-million-dollar fraud

A former Vancouver Canucks prospect is facing criminal charges on allegations of “large scale financial frauds.”

In a media release Wednesday, Surrey RCMP said Prabhraj Rai was arrested Tuesday and charged with fraud over $5,000.

Mounties said they began the investigation in January 2021 “after a victim came forward to police, alleging they had lost several million dollars in real estate investment opportunities.”

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Police said their investigation found Rai, 34, conducted the frauds between October 2015 and July 2018.

A civil suit filed in 2020 claims Rai defrauded a Vancouver man of more than $2.9 million through a series of bogus business ventures, alleging Rai presented himself as a “successful and wealthy businessperson” with connections to international business people and retired hockey players.

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None of those allegations have been proven in court, and the RCMP’s financial crimes unit did not make a connection between the two cases.

The Canucks drafted Rai in the fifth round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, while he was playing as a forward for the WHL Seattle Thunderbirds.

Rai never ended up playing with the NHL club however, and ended his hockey career in 2015 playing for the ECHL Evansville Icemen.