VANCOUVER – A woman in charge of finances for a criminal justice think-tank based at UBC is facing criminal charges after allegedly embezzling more than $1 million from the non-profit institution.
Janet Mercedes Bayda, formerly a registered chartered accountant with the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, allegedly siphoned off the funds over a seven-year period between 2004 and 2011.
According to court records she is charged with nine counts of fraud over $5,000.
Donald Sorochan, counsel for Bayda’s former employer, said he did not know the exact amount Bayda is accused of stealing, but estimates it is between $1 million and $1.5 million.
A release from the ICCLR Thursday said Bayda created false entries in the organization’s accounting records to “conceal unlawfully created cheques payable to the benefit of Ms. Bayda.”
“Although the amount of the fraud is clearly over $1 million, determination of the precise amount of the fraud requires access to records seized by the police but not yet available to ICCLR,” the release states.
The organization, a registered charity, operates out of space at UBC’s faculty of law but is “completely independent of UBC,” Sorochan said.
“UBC’s only involvement is that the faculty of law provides the premises. Intellectually, (UBC) provides people who work on the programs, but not to the organization or funding,” he said.
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He said the ICCLR retains an auditing firm, although he declined to identify it.
Founded in 1991 through a joint initiative between UBC, Simon Fraser University, and the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, the ICCLR “delivers professional programs and publications promoting democratic principles, the rule of law and respect for human rights in criminal law,” according to the release.
Its board of directors includes appointees from UBC, SFU, the Ministry of Justice, the federal ministers of foreign affairs and public safety, the attorneys general of B.C. and Canada, and the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime.
Bayda worked for the organization for 18 years, from October 1993 to December 2011, providing bookkeeping and accounting services.
She was fired on Dec. 14, 2011 “when the fraud committed by her was initially detected by ICCLR management and was immediately confirmed by a forensic accounting review and an analysis by legal counsel.”
Asked why the alleged fraud wasn’t discovered earlier, Sorochan replied: “This is a fraud committed by a professional.
“She’s an accountant and knew how to cover her tracks.”
He said the money allegedly embezzled by Bayda came out of the ICCLR’s general operating budget, although he did not know the amount of the organization’s total budget.
According to financial information provided to the Canada Revenue Agency, the ICCLR is a registered charity with total revenue in fiscal 2012 of $644,000 and total expenditures of $729,000.
To date, the ICCLR has been able to recover $425,000 of the missing funds through working with Bayda’s lawyer, the release said.
In 2006, a Janet Bayda was featured in Metropolitan Home magazine talking about building her Vancouver dream home.
In the article, she is identified as a financial consultant who boasts of the design for the custom-built 2,400-square-foot home she shared with partner Graeme Boniface.
“We both believe that a home should be a refuge or a sanctuary,” she is quoted as saying of the open-concept glass-framed house that featured a central koi pond and reflecting pool.
“It should be a place of rest, where things are calm and serene and one can unwind.”
Bayda is due to appear in Vancouver Provincial Court on June 7.
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