Paul Singla and Randy Toor made their first appearance in Penticton provincial court on Wednesday via their lawyers for their alleged roles in a B.C.-wide immigration fraud network.
Singla is the president of Penticton-based Singla Brothers Holdings, a real-estate development, rentals and excavation firm.
Officers with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) swarmed Singla’s home, which doubled as an office, in June 2018.
It was unclear at the time why the raid took place, but Singla is now facing 10 charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act related to incidents alleged to have occurred from 2015-17.
He is accused of helping people misrepresent facts on labour market impact assessments for his company, as well as the Trout Creek fruit stand in Summerland, B.C.
Those assessments are required for employers to hire temporary foreign workers.
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Toor is the owner of Desert Hills Estate Winery in Oliver, B.C., and is a former Oliver town council member.
Court documents show Toor is facing 18 charges of helping people misrepresent or withhold facts related to labour market impact assessments for his winery, as well as Toor Vineyards.
Toor is also facing a host of weapons offences for guns allegedly in his possession, which were seized in June 2018.
The firearms included a .15 caliber revolver, .22 caliber revolver, a Ruger pistol, a Remington shotgun, a Colt revolver and two handgun barrels, according to the indictment obtained by Global News.
Four other people from the Lower Mainland have also been charged in connection to the alleged scam.
Rupinder Batth of Langley is facing the most charges, including 48 counts of alleged misrepresentation, according to the CBSA.
His wife, Navdeep Batth, is facing 15 counts of counselling misrepresentation.
Gurtaj Grewal, the owner of Agiforce Security Ltd., is facing 10 charges of counselling misrepresentation, and Ved Kaler, the owner of V K Delivery & Moving Services Ltd., is facing 6 counts of counselling misrepresentation.
Ian Donaldson, Singla’s lawyer, told Global News his client is accused of overstating the number of temporary foreign workers he needed to run his businesses, but unknowingly participated in the scheme and did not benefit.
Donaldson described Singla as a well-regarded, hard-working and decent man.
Toor did not respond to a request for comment.
As for Singla and Toor’s next court date, the matter was adjourned to January 6.
The pair are not in custody.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.