Canadian arrested in Bali on fraud, forgery charges
Published on: Tuesday, May 23, 2023
By: AFP
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Gagnon is escorted at the police station in Denpasar.
DENPASAR: A Canadian wanted by Interpol for forgery and defrauding hundreds of investors in his home country has been arrested on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, police said.Stephane Gagnon was arrested in his villa in Canggu, a popular tourist hotspot, on Saturday after Interpol sent a letter to the Bali police informing them that the 50-year-old was wanted on forgery and fraud charges.
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“We arrested him on May 20 and he has been detained at the Bali police detention for the next twenty days,” an officer from the Bali police’ detective unit, Ni Wayan Sriani, told a news conference Monday.
Gagnon entered Bali in 2020 from Vietnam and had a temporary stay permit as an investor, police said.
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) said on its website in 2021 that he was accused of defrauding investors across Canada by promising them immediate access to their locked-in retirement savings accounts.
The OSC accused the businessman of collecting more than 20 million Canadian dollars ($14.8 million) from investors between 2015 and 2021 and then using a significant amount of it on personal expenses. Many investors did not receive the funds they were promised.
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Interpol issued a red notice for his arrest last year. Bali police accused Gagnon of defrauding more than 300 victims.
Indonesian immigration authorities are waiting for an extradition request from the Canadian government.
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In 2020, Bali authorities arrested an American for scamming clients and women he met online out of some $500,000 by pretending to be an investment manager.
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