An Update from Local 4070 Secretary-Treasurer Kruti Sutaria

Dear Members,


The Union would like to advise of a financial incident involving fraud that occurred in respect to the Local’s primary chequing account during the month of August 2021.

On Thursday August 26th, as your Secretary-Treasurer I noticed unusual activity in one of the Local’s bank accounts. Specifically, four (4) cheques that had cleared our account in amounts of over $4,500 each. The cheque numbers of these withdrawals were suspicious in nature as these cheque numbers had previously been used and cashed in 2019. The dates of these withdrawals were August 11th and 20th.

Additionally, no physical cheques have been used by the Local in over a year thanks to a payment processing software that provides the use of electronic fund transfers; this has minimized the need for paper cheques. 

Upon discovery of what I was confident was fraud, I immediately proceeded to the nearest bank branch where an official investigation was opened. Legal affidavits were signed by myself and Chris Rauenbusch, CUPE 4070 President; and I transferred remaining funds into our savings account to prevent further cheques from clearing. A police report has also been filed with the Calgary Police Service, which is the procedure for theft over $5000 in Canada.

On Tuesday August 31st, the Bank Manager that had helped initiate the investigation contacted me to advise that the four (4) cheques in question were indeed deemed counterfeit by the Bank’s internal fraud investigation department; and that the funds totaling over $18,000 were going to be returned to CUPE Local 4070 that same day. A new account has now been opened to avoid our Members’ funds being held in an account which has been breached; and the original account will be closed in short order once the preauthorized payments are transferred. The deposit was received into the new account on Tuesday August 31st.

I am confident about which cheque was copied; and based on an internal Union investigation, I strongly believe that the cheque in question was sent to a vendor (payee) in September 2019. It appears this cheque was then altered with two of the signing officers’ signatures electronically copied onto the cloned cheques. The Union is awaiting further details from the vendor at which I believe this occurred; for additional information following their own investigation, as well as for the results of the Calgary Police Service investigation upon its conclusion.

As always, my priority and core responsibilities as your elected Secretary-Treasurer are to ensure that the dues - that you, our Members contribute to our Local - are safely and responsibly handled, and that you have trust in the financial accountability of your Union Local at all times. I remain steadfast and unwavered in this responsibility and continue to be honoured to hold your trust in this regard.

A further update on this incident regarding the Police investigation as well as further details will be provided to the Membership at the next General Membership Meeting (GMM), which will be announced soon, that will occur in November.

In Solidarity,
Kruti Sutaria
Secretary-Treasurer - CUPE Local 4070