2025 Year in Review
Serious Fraud Office 2025 Year in Review
This Year in Review provides a snapshot of the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) activities, performance and strategic developments in 2025.
SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE BY THE NUMBERS
Enforcement
The SFO demonstrated its commitment to fighting financial crime by commencing five new complex investigations. A total of 11 individuals were charged with 30 serious offences.
Asset Recovery
Cases prosecuted by the SFO resulted in $7.1 million ordered in fines in lieu of forfeiture and $5.5 million in restitution to victims. Restitution was either ordered by the court or paid voluntarily. These outcomes demonstrate the SFO’s commitment to ensuring wrongdoers do not profit from financial crime and providing victims the opportunity to obtain restitution.
Operational Efficiency
All SFO-investigated cases were resolved within the R. v. Jordan time limits established by the Supreme Court of Canada, which protect the right of accused persons to be tried within a reasonable time. This reflects the SFO’s ability to manage complex cases efficiently while meeting Charter requirements.
Victim Assistance
The SFO recorded a total of 7,282 victim support interactions throughout investigations and court proceedings. Victim liaisons helped victims understand their rights, provided updates on case progress, facilitated access to support services and ensured victims were prepared for court proceedings. This consistent support helped reduce the isolation and uncertainty that fraud victims often experience.
Fraud Prevention
The SFO delivered fraud prevention education to the public on 36 occasions, supported by the SFO website, community partnerships and collaboration with Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Auxiliary members. These efforts helped communities across Ontario better understand fraud risks and take steps to reduce victimization.
Education and Training
The SFO delivered 10 education and training events, with a combined attendance of 982 individuals from Ontario’s law enforcement, justice and partner agencies. Notable events included the Advanced Fraud Investigation Course, the Financial Crime Forum and, in collaboration with an insurance provider, the Uncovering Fraud Through Partnerships training.
2025 BY THE NUMBERS
INVESTIGATIONS & PROSECUTIONS
The total value of the fines that offenders were ordered to pay because they had spent or hidden the proceeds of their crimes.
The amount of restitution ordered to be paid to victims.
The percentage of cases successfully resolved within R. v. Jordan timelines.
The number of charges laid.
The number of people arrested and charged.
ADJUNCT & SUPPORT SERVICES
The total number of victim support interactions.
The number of SFO-led education and training events attended by partners and stakeholders.
Partner and stakeholder attendance across education and training events facilitated by the SFO Education and Training program.
The number of times the SFO provided fraud prevention education to the public, including vulnerable groups.
INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS
Notable Investigations Concluded in 2025
- Project Tin: An investigation into alleged bribery and corruption related to commercial driver testing in Ontario. Driver examiners allegedly accepted bribes in exchange for improperly issuing commercial driver licences, thereby raising public safety concerns. The SFO charged eight individuals with offences including breach of trust, secret commissions, conspiracy and money laundering.
- Project Turnover: An investigation into the alleged falsification of employment eligibility documents required for security guards working in Ontario long-term care facilities. It is alleged that these falsified screening documents were used to bypass safeguards intended to protect vulnerable populations. The SFO charged three individuals with fraud over $5,000 and uttering forged documents.
Select SFO Prosecutions in the News of 2025
- Project Sharp: An OPP-led, multi-jurisdictional investigation involving police services across Ontario and Québec targeting a Montreal-based criminal organization. The criminal organization extracted an estimated $5 million annually from hundreds of senior citizens who were tricked over the phone into believing that they were providing cash bail to release their loved ones from police custody. Some lost their life savings. The investigation revealed how this criminal organization operated in the following stages: victim selection; victim payment to “closers” pretending to be officers; movement of money via couriers attending the victims’ homes in Ontario communities to pick up “bail” money; and proceeds transport back to Montréal. By the end of 2025, 12 of the 15 individuals associated with Project Sharp had pled guilty, with sentences ranging from conditional sentences to four years in the penitentiary. More than $280,000 in restitution for victims has been ordered and/or recovered.
- R. v. Gagnon: Between August 1, 2015, and May 31, 2021, Stephane Gagnon solicited and received over $20 million from 335 investors. Much of the money was returned to investors over time. Mr. Gagnon created companies and advertised online to the public that he could help them access funds in their locked-in retirement accounts, sometimes with a favourable rate of return, if they invested their money in his company. Instead of investing it as promised, he used approximately 30 per cent of the money for personal use. In many cases, he did not give the victims the returns they were assured. Mr. Gagnon was sentenced to five years imprisonment in July 2025 and ordered to pay over $4 million in restitution. Mr. Gagnon forfeited $350,000 prior to being sentenced and the court ordered a fine in lieu of forfeiture of over $7 million for the outstanding money.
- R. v. Aquino and Georgiou: On October 7, 2025, John Aquino and Vas Georgiou were convicted of fraud arising from their corruption of the public procurement process for a $300 million renovation of St. Michael’s Hospital. Infrastructure Ontario (IO) and other bidders believed that a fair and transparent procurement process would be followed to determine who would win the substantial contract to renovate the hospital. However, Vas Georgiou, the chief administrative officer of St. Michael’s Hospital, and John Aquino, the president of Bondfield Construction at the time, concealed their connections to each other and used a secret email account to communicate during the process. Aquino and Georgio’s scheme had serious ramifications. For example, they harmed IO’s investment in maintaining a fair and competitive marketplace for public procurement and deprived the other bidders of the costs they incurred while thinking they were in a fair competition. As Justice Bawden stated, “perhaps the greatest loss is the intangible harm to public confidence in the integrity of the marketplace” for public-private government projects. Sentencing is set for 2026.
- Project Totton: In the summer of 2025, James White and David Paul Bremner each pled guilty to one count of uttering forged documents and one count of possession of property obtained by crime for the purpose of trafficking relating to their roles in the sales of hundreds of fake artworks falsely attributed to Indigenous Artist, Norval Morrisseau. In the fall of 2025, Jeffery Cowan embarked on a multi-week trial, during which the Crown led evidence of more than 1,000 artworks that Mr. Cowan represented to be genuine and called witnesses that described the various stories that Mr. Cowan told them about the provenance of the artwork. On November 13, 2025, a jury convicted Mr. Cowan of uttering forged documents, defrauding the public and defrauding two specific individuals between 2008 to 2021. Mr. Cowan’s sentencing is set for 2026.
SPOTLIGHT ON FRAUD PREVENTION
The SFO delivered fraud prevention campaigns and community outreach to raise awareness of fraud and support early prevention.
Fraud Prevention Campaigns
The SFO delivered fraud prevention campaigns through content published on its public-facing website and social media channels to help people understand emerging fraud risks and seasonal trends. These campaigns were designed for the public, including vulnerable populations, and focused on practical tips to help individuals recognize warning signs, protect themselves and know where to report fraud.
Focus areas included:
- Safe buying and selling on online marketplaces during the back-to-school period.
- Cyber fraud awareness during Cyber Security Awareness Month.
- Protecting seniors from fraud during National Senior Safety Week.
- Tips for secure online shopping throughout the holiday season.
Community Outreach
In addition to fraud prevention campaigns, the SFO delivered in-person community outreach to support awareness and prevention efforts as part of its 36 fraud prevention activities in 2025. This included, for example, a presentation to the Halton Deaf Seniors Club, supported by an American Sign Language interpreter. This outreach helped ensure information was accessible, inclusive and responsive to communities that may face barriers to traditional fraud prevention messaging.
STRATEGIC INNOVATIONS
The SFO advanced a number of strategic innovations focused on modernization, victim-centred service delivery and fraud prevention.
- SFO website: The SFO launched its public-facing website, establishing a comprehensive resource for the public that provides accessible information about fraud, fraud prevention and the work of the SFO. The website features fraud awareness and prevention articles addressing emerging fraud risks and seasonal trends, practical tips to protect against fraud, guidance on what to do if targeted or victimized (including how to report fraud), information about the SFO’s mandate and operations and the 2024 Year in Review, highlighting SFO activities, performance and key developments. The launch of the website strengthens the SFO’s ability to engage the public and share fraud prevention information more broadly.
- SFO Victim Portal: The SFO launched its Victim Portal, a secure online platform that operates within the Adjunct Services Branch of the SFO. The Victim Portal is designed to enhance communication and support for victims of fraud. Victim liaisons manage the portal to provide timely case updates, information on available supports and services and direct support as required. This tool reflects the SFO’s victim-centred approach to service delivery, enabling impacted individuals to access information at their own pace while modernizing how the SFO communicates with and supports victims throughout the lifecycle of its investigations and prosecutions.
- Fraud prevention partnerships with provincial ministries: The SFO strengthened its partnerships with provincial ministries to support fraud prevention within government programs. This work included identifying systemic risks and opportunities to strengthen fraud prevention. Through collaboration with ministry partners, the SFO supported a more proactive and coordinated approach to protecting public funds and strengthening program integrity across government.
- Academic research partnership: The SFO collaborated with King’s University College at Western University on research examining how older adults experience fraud and interact with the justice system. Insights from this work will help inform future fraud prevention initiatives and approaches to victim-centred service delivery.