Toronto’s public transit provider says it has dismissed 73 people in connection with what it describes as a multimillion-dollar benefits fraud scheme.
The Toronto Transit Commission says the dismissals are directly related to a criminal investigation that got underway in 2015.
That July, police charged the owner of health products and services provider Healthy Fit for allegedly issuing receipts for inflated or non-existent claims.
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The TTC alleges that employees would submit the fraudulent receipts and then share the proceeds of the benefits payout with the owner of Healthy Fit.
TTC Spokesman Brad Ross says the organization expects that more employees will be let go as the investigation continues, adding no past or present staff is facing criminal charges.
He says the scam was a multi-million-dollar effort and says the TTC saw a $5 million reduction in benefits claims from 2015 to 2016, but added the decrease could not all necessarily be attributed to the alleged fraud.